THE  CHURCH 
ENCHAINED 


WM.A.R.C00DW1N 


tihraxy  of  Che  theological  ^emmarjp 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BV  600  .G67 

Goodwin,  William  Archer 
Ruthorford,  1869-1939. 
The  church  enchained 

BV  600  .G67 


THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 


THE  CHURCH 
ENCHAINED 


BY  THE 

REV.  WM.  A.  R.  boODWIN,  D.D. 

Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Author  of  the  History  of  Bruton  Parish  Church,  and 
the  History  of  Bruton  Parish  Church  Restored 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  THE 
RT.  REV.  DAVID  H.  GREER,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  New  York 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  BUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 

1916 


CoPTmiGHT,  1918, 

BT 

E.  P.  DUTTON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  Utiited  States  of  America 


DEDICATION 

To  all  those  who  pray  for  a  perfect  willingness  to 
suffer  the  loss  of  all  things  "that  they  may  win 
Christ,  and  be  found  in  Him" ;  who,  as  Prophets,  pro- 
claim the  truth  that  makes  men  free,  "come  whence 
it  may,  and  cost  what  it  may";  who,  as  Priests,  con- 
sent to  offer  costly  sacrifice,  that  all  may  come  "into 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God" ;  and  who, 
as  servants  of  Christ,  desire  to  express  a  comprehen- 
sive faith  in  co-operative  service  to  the  Glory  of  God 
in  the  extension  of  His  Kingdom  among  men;  these 
pages,  devoted  to  the  search  for  truth  and  freedom, 
and  an  ultimate  divine  order,  are  humbly  dedicated. 


PREFACE 

The  thoughts  relative  to  Christ  and  His 
Church  and  the  world's  great  need  expressed 
in  this  book  are  communicated  because  of  the 
hope  that,  through  the  blessing  of  the  Spirit  of 
truth,  they  may  minister  to  the  building  up  of 
the  Body  of  Christ  in  love. 

"We  seek  the  truth  under  human  limitations. 
Often,  in  its  pursuit,  we  follow  false  trails. 
Sometimes  right  trails  are  wrongly  followed. 
The  by-path  is  mistaken  for  the  King's  high- 
way. The  point  we  reach  is  heralded  as  the 
ultimate  viewpoint.  The  further  and  more  far- 
reaching  viewpoints  not  yet  attained  are  not 
postulated  as  possible.  A  stake  is  driven  down ; 
a  barrier  is  built,  and  seekers  after  truth  are 
warned  and  prohibited  from  venturing  beyond 
the  limit  fixed. 

vii 


mii  PREFACE 

The  truth  incarnate  has  ever  been  enchained. 
We  hear  the  clank  of  the  chains  by  which  the 
Church  has  been  bound  as  we  trace  her  history 
through  the  centuries.  Sometimes  these  bonds 
have  been  imposed  upon  the  Church,  and  upon 
seekers  after  truth,  from  without.  As  men 
*Hook  Jesus  and  bound  Him,*'  as  they  chained 
St.  Paul,  and  John  Huss,  and  Jerome,  and  Lat- 
timer,  and  John  Bunyan,  so  the  world  powers, 
and  the  powers  of  darkness,  have  bound  the 
Body  of  Christ.  These  chains,  externally  im- 
posed, have  ever  served  to  test  and  manifest 
the  power  of  the  life  divine,  and  have  been  the 
means  of  giving  witness  to  the  conquering 
strength  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  truth. 

The  chains  that  have  really  bound  the  Christ, 
and  which  have  delimited  the  freedom  of  the 
Church,  and  hindered  her  in  the  fulfillment  of 
her  divinely  given  mission  to  be  His  witness, 
have  been  forged  in  the  mind  and  heart  and  will 
of  the  members  of  His  Body. 

The  chains  forged  by  the  logical  processes  of 
thought  which  seek  to  confine  the  boundless  love 


PREFACE  ix 

of  God,  and  the  free  grace  revealed  in  the  Great 
Gospel  of  redemption ;  the  chains  forged  by  the 
narrow  definitions  and  exalted  pride  and  big- 
otry of  ecclesiasticism,  which  bind  the  creative 
and  redemptive  forces  of  Christianity;  the 
chains  wrought  out  of  the  Church's  trust  in 
material  power;  the  iron  chains  of  bigotry, 
and  the  golden  chains  of  luxury,  and  self-indul- 
gence and  the  love  of  pleasure ;  and  the  chains 
which  are  unconsciously  forged  by  the  habits 
of  neglect  and  indifference  and  procrastination ; 
these  are  the  bonds  which  have  ever  bound  the 
Body  of  Christ. 

These  chains  bind  His  Church  to-day.  Called 
and  challenged  by  the  world  crisis  to  help  and 
heal  sorrowing  and  suffering  millions,  and  to 
restrain  the  ambition  and  wrath  of  man,  the 
Church  finds  herself  enchained.  She  stands  un- 
prepared in  the  presence  of  her  greatest  op- 
portunity and  responsibility.  Sent  to  minister 
in  His  name  to  the  poor,  the  broken-hearted,  the 
captives,  and  to  give  men  liberty,  she  hears  the 
call,  **Come  over  and  help  us,"  but  she  is  not 


X  PREFACE 

prepared  to  go.  Having  long  prayed  for  an 
open  door,  she  stands  to-day  before  doors  wide 
open,  enchained  and  hindered  from  entering 
them. 

Sent  by  the  Church  of  our  Motherland,  or 
coming  with  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  she  helped  to 
lay  the  foundation  stones  of  this  republic  at 
Jamestown  and  at  Plymouth  in  the  fear  and  love 
of  the  God  of  justice,  mercy  and  truth.  To-day, 
in  the  supreme  hour  of  America's  need,  she  is 
unprepared  because  of  her  chains  to  lead 
America  to  see  the  vision  of  the  preparedness 
she  most  largely  needs  to  enable  her  to  fulfill 
her  mission  to  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  links  of  these  chains  which  have  been 
bound  about  His  Body  should  be  examined  with 
a  candid  mind,  and  with  a  spirit  illumined  and 
guided  by  earnest  prayer.  The  will  must  be 
consecrated  to  a  readiness  to  make  costly  sac- 
rifice if  we  are  to  come  to  know  the  truth  that 
will  make  us  free  indeed. 

There  are  ancient  anchor  chains  by  which  the 
Church  must  ever  be  bound.    There  are  narrow 


PREFACE  ^ 

harbour  chains  from  which  she  must  be  loosed 
if  she  would  rescue  the  perishing,  and  come  at 
last,  bearing  the  redeemed  of  every  nation,  into 
the  haven  where  Christ  would  have  them  be. 
***** 
If  anything  unkind  or  unfair  is  said  in  the 
pages  following,  forgiveness  is  asked,  and  the 
assurance  is  given  that  such  word  or  statement 
has  been  unintentionally  written.  The  limita- 
tions of  human  thought  ever  make  us  liable  to 
mistakes  of  judgment,  and  to  errors  in  rightly 
dividing  the  word  of  truth.  Lack  of  Christian 
courtesy  is  unpardonable,  and  the  failure  to 
be  tolerant  of,  and  sympathetic  with,  other  ear- 
nest and  devoted  seekers  after  truth  surely 
closes  the  mind  to  the  clear  vision  of  the  truth 

itself. 

If  this  book  in  any  way  helps  to  make  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  its  readers  more  compre- 
hensive, more  sympathetic,  and  more  truly 
catholic,  the  hope  and  prayer  of  the  author  will 
be  fulfilled. 


$ii  PREFACE 

AN    ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Cordial  appreciation  is  expressed,  and  grate- 
ful acknowledgment  is  here  made  of  the  kind- 
ness of  the  Right  Reverend  Doctor  David  H. 
Greer,  Bishop  of  New  York,  for  reading  the 
manuscript,  and  for  writing  the  introduction 
to  this  book;  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cosby  Bell,  Profes- 
sor of  Theology  of  the  Theological  Seminary  in 
Virginia ;  the  Reverend  Editor  of  the  Southern 
Churchman;  and  Mr.  George  Wharton  Pepper 
of  Philadelphia,  who  were  kind  enough  to  read 
the  manuscript,  and  who  offered  valuable  and 
helpful  suggestions.  This  acknowledgment  does 
not  carry  with  it  any  intention  of  making  these 
honoured  churchmen  in  any  way  responsible  for 

the  views  set  forth. 

William  A.  R.  Goodwin. 

Bt.  Paul's  Church, 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Easter,  1916. 


CONTENTS 

PA6B 

Introduction  by  Bishop  Greer      ....      xvii 
PART  I— THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CALL 

CHAPTER 

I    The  Crisis  and  the  Church    .  3 
II    The  Mission  of  the  Church  to 

Imperilled  America  ....  18 

III  Materialism 31 

IV  Civilisation 40 

V    The  Spiritual  Mission  of  the 

Christian  Church      ....       51 
VI     The  Tragedy  of  Unprepared- 

NESS 63 

PART  II— ECCLESIASTICISM  AND  CHRISTIAN- 
ITY.    FORM  AND  SPIRIT. 

VII     The  Purpose  Previewed     .      .       83 
VIII     Logic  and  Catholicity  ...       90 
IX     The  Intention  and  Extension 

OF  the  Church 93 

X    The  Atmosphere  of  the  Syllo- 
gism   98 

XI    The  Reformation  a  Distinctly 

Catholic  Movement  ....     102 
XII    Can  the  Church  be  Defined?      105 

XIII  The  Church  Under  a  Descrip- 
tive Title 113 

XIV  The  Message  of  the  Transition     126 
XV    The    Terms    "Catholic"    and 

"Catholic  Sanction"     .     .     .     134 
ziii 


XIV 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XVI 

XVII 

XVIII 

XIX 

XX 

XXI 

XXII 

XXIII 

XXIV 
XXV 

XXVI 

XXVII 

XXVIII 

XXIX 

XXX 


XXXI 
XXXII 


PART  III- 

XXXIII 

XXXIV 

XXXV 

XXXVI 
XXXVII 


PAGE 

155 
159 
163 
167 
174 
177 


The  Appeal  to  the  Past 
The  Ancient  Paths  . 
Individualism  .... 
The  Horns  of  a  Dilemma 
The  Paradoxes  of  Truth 
The  Central  Ground  Position 
The    Language    of    Courtesy 
and  of  Controversy       .     .      .     182 
The  Fence  Through  the  Middle 

Ground 186 

The  Priest  and  the  Monk       .     188 
The  Prophet  and  the  Denom- 
inational Minister   ....     197 
Necessary   Restrictions   Upon 

Liberty 202 

The  Perils  of  Protestantism  217 
The  Peril  of  Orders  .  .  .  227 
What  Would   Become   of  the 

Prayer  Book 234 

The  Defence  and  the  Exempli- 
fication OF  the  Power  of  Or- 
ders   238 

What  We  May  and  What  We 

Cannot  Hold 243 

Ancient  Land  Marks     .     .     .     247 

-CONFERENCE— CO-OPERATION- 
UNITY 

Are  We  Prepared?    ....  251 

The  Challenge 257 

"The     Church"     and     "This 

Church" 260 

Conference  and  Co-operation  263 

Movements  Toward  Unity       .  277 


CONTENTS 


XV 


CHAPTER 

XXXVIII 


XXXIX 

XL 

XLI 

XLII 

XLIII 

XLIV 
XLV 


XLVI 


XLVII 

XLVIII 

XLIX 

L 


Our  Position  with  Reference 
TO     THE     Orthodox     Eastern 

Church 285 

Our  Position  with  Reference 
TO  the  Roman  Catholic  Church     289 
Conference  and  Co-operation 
WITH  Protestant  Communions  .     305 
The  Recognition  of  the  Lay- 
man BY  this  Church.      .     .     .     311 
The   Way   Prepared    for   this 

Church 320 

The    World,    the    Work,    the 
Waste,  Co- Workers  ....     324 
The  Restraint  of  Power    .      .     333 
A  Conference  and  Co-operative 

Commission 338 

The  Temporary  Nature  and  the 
Mission  of  Federated  Move- 
ments       342 

Federation  and  Religious  Ed- 
ucation   353 

The  Price  of  Consistency  .  .  363 
The  Question  of  Unity  .  .  366 
The  Vision  of  the  Son  of  Man    371 


INTRODUCTION 

BY 

The  Rt.  Rev.  David  Hummell  Greek, 

D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  New  York. 

DR.  GOODWIN  has  given  us  in  the  follow- 
ing pages  a  strong  and  timely  word.  It 
is  positive  and  forceful  but  not  polemical  and 
contentious.  He  speaks  with  conviction  but  not 
with  intolerance,  and  whether  or  not  we  agree 
with  him  we  cannot  fail  to  recognize  and  admire 
his  courtesy  and  fairness  towards  those  who 
differ  with  him.  In  this  respect,  he  not  only 
sets  an  example  which,  in  these  days  of  much 
heat  and  little  light  both  in  Church  and  State, 
it  would  be  well  for  the  rest  of  us  to  follow,  but 
also  strikes  the  true  catholic  note  and  expresses 

zvii 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

or  reflects  the  true  catholic  mind.  For  what  is 
catholicity? — that  very  much  mooted  and  much 
disputed  word  and  about  which  there  seems  to 
be,  as  Dr.  Goodwin  shows,  no  catholic  agree- 
ment. In  what  does  it  consist?  Not  in  a  fixed 
and  rigorous  definition  or  dogmatic  declaration 
established  once  for  all.  That  is  the  definition 
of  the  sectary  with  the  seeds  of  schism  in  it. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  declaration  as  a  disposition : 
not  a  disposition  to  surrender  its  convictions  or 
to  hold  them  lightly,  but  one  which,  while  adher- 
ing to  them,  is  not  delimited  by  them,  but  has 
learned  the  secret,  the  catholic  secret,  of  how 
to  keep  and  hold  without  any  break  or  excision 
in  it  a  fellowship  beyond  them.  A  recent  re- 
viewer has  said  of  Charles  Lamb  that  he  was 
certainly  never  surpassed  and  probably  not 
equalled  by  any  contemporary  for  understand- 
ing those  with  whom  he  did  not  agree.  That 
is  the  catholic  mind,  which,  if  rarely  found  in 
literature,  is  still  more  rarely  found  in  theol- 
ogy and  religion  or  the  Councils  of  the  Church. 
It  is,  however,  a  type  of  mind  in  which  the  hope 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

of  the  ultimate  unity  of  Christendom  resides 
and  which  should  be  sedulously  cultivated  by  all 
schools  of  thought  in  the  Christian  Church. 
That  is  the  type  of  mind  reflected  in  Dr.  Good- 
win's treatise,  which,  while  expressing  definitely 
and  clearly  and  with  no  uncertain  sound,  his 
deep  and  strong  convictions,  is  written  in  a 
truly  catholic  tone  and  temper.  It  is  a  notable 
book,  both  in  what  it  says  and  the  spirit  in  which 
it  says  it,  and  will  well  repay  a  close  and  careful 
reading. 

David  H.  Greer. 


PART  I 

THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CALL 

*'ls  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  hyf" 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH 

IN  the  presence  of  the  great  world  crisis, 
Christianity  and  the  Christian  Church 
stand  for  judgment.  It  is  asked  by  many, 
''Has  Christianity  failed?"  When  asked  this 
question  by  a  young  student,  the  president  of 
one  of  our  universities  answered:  ''It  has 
never  been  tried."  This  question  cannot  be 
answered  and  dismissed  with  a  "yes"  or 
"no."  Christianity  has  succeeded  in  doing 
many  things ;  in  many  things  she  has  deplorably 
failed.  That  she  failed  to  stem  the  forces  which 
culminated  in  the  present  world  catastrophe  is 
apparent.  Yet  it  is  evident  that  the  desires,  the 
ambitions,  the  materialism,  the  inordinate 
greed,  and  the  will  to  power,  which  have  com- 

3 


4  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

bined  to  cause  the  greatest  war  of  the  world, 
are  all  motives  and  impulses  directly  contrary 
to  her  fundamental  principles,  and  to  the  Spirit 
and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  great  war 
is,  indeed,  the  most  striking  vindication  in  hu- 
man history  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  con- 
tention. As  nothing  has  ever  done  before,  it 
manifests  the  necessity  for  obeying  the  spiritual 
laws  proclaimed  by  Christ,  and  of  living  life 
in  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  if  a  just  and  abiding 
peace  is  to  be  established  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth. 

It  is  well  that  thinking  men  should  pause  and 
carefully  consider  in  what  ways,  and  for  what 
reasons,  the  Christian  Church  has  failed  to  im- 
press the  consciousness  of  the  races  at  war,  and 
the  world  consciousness  at  large,  with  a  force 
and  intensity  sufficient  to  guide  into  the  paths 
of  integrity  and  peace  the  desire  of  the  nations, 
and  the  wills  of  those  who  are  now  working 
their  will  in  devastation,  wholesale  slaughter 
and  mutual  destruction. 

The  causes  for  this  failure  in  the  Church,  in 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  5 

so  far  as  tliey  still  inhere  in  the  Church,  exist 
there  as  a  tragedy.  If,  in  view  of  the  call  which 
now  comes  to  the  Christian  Church,  these  causes 
of  weakness  are  allowed  to  continue  to  retard 
her  influence  and  paralyse  her  power,  the  world 
will,  when  it  pauses  to  take  inventory,  condemn 
and  despise  the  Church  for  her  lack  of  vision ; 
for  her  impotence,  born  of  pride,  prejudice  and 
arrogance;  for  her  lack  of  power  because  of 
her  lack  of  unity;  for  having  proven  recreant 
to  her  trust;  and  for  having  utterly  failed  to 
speak  and  exemplify  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 
Christ  to  the  world  in  the  darkest  hour  of  her 
life,  and  in  the  day  of  her  deepest  distress,  and 
of  her  profoundest  need. 

It  is  the  solemn  duty  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  of  all  Christian  men,  to  ask  the  causes  of 
the  tragic  failure  of  the  one  force  which  might 
have  prevented  this  tragedy  had  it  been  vital, 
united,  and  consecrated  fully  to  its  Christ-given 
mission  to  the  world.  This  duty  is  imperative, 
and  must  be  faced  with  great  sacrificial  re- 
nunciation unless  we  are  willing  that  the  causes 


6  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  the  Church's  failure  shall  be  written  in  the 
book  of  doom  which  will  tell  future  generations 
why  suddenly  the  whole  world  fabric  seemed  to 
collapse.  It  is  imperative  for  the  reason,  also, 
that  we  face  a  future  pregnant  with  the  most 
vital  and  stupendous  problems  and  responsi- 
bilities which  have  ever  challenged  the  thought, 
and  will,  and  faith  of  man. 

''where  is  now  thy  godT* 

Infidelity,  skepticism,  materialism,  heathen- 
dom turn  to-day  to  the  Christian  Church  and 
ask,  ''Where  is  now  thy  God?"  Browning  has 
answered, 

*' God's  in  His  heaven — 
All's  right  with  the  world." 

But  Zeppelin  bombs  were  not  then  dropping 
around  him  out  of  the  blue  Italian  sky  upon  the 
ancient  glories  of  Venice.  At  present  all's 
wrong  with  the  world,  and  God,  where  is  He 
now?  The  doors  of  many  parts  of  His  heaven 
are  closed  to  Him.    By  neglect.  He  is  to-day 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  7 

being  excluded,  here  in  America,  from  the  minds 
of  millions  of  His  children  by  the  ignorance  that 
is  in  them  by  reason  of  the  entire  lack  of  all 
religious  education,  both  on  Sundays  and  on 
week  days.  Sectarian  strife  and  ecclesiastical 
bigotry  have  shut  Him  out  of  our  public  schools. 
Materialism,  agnosticism  and  infidelity  have 
banished  Him  from  the  laboratories  and  class 
rooms  of  many  of  our  most  renowned  universi- 
ties. 

Greed  and  covetousness  have  forced  Him  out 
of  conference  and  co-partnership  relation  with 
many  of  our  banking,  commercial,  and  indus- 
trial corporations.  It  is  said  they  have  no 
soul.  If  the  directors  of  big  business  fail  to  feel 
their  responsibility  to  incorporate  their  souls 
into  their  business,  then  corporations  have  no 
point  of  contact  with  God.  The  exiled  God  is 
not  s-atisfied.  Through  His  broken  laws,  and  in 
the  brutal  passions  of  men,  He  is  uttering  His 
protest.  Through  the  cannon's  mouth.  He  is 
appealing  for  His  divine  right  to  be  enthroned 
in  the  hearts  of  His  children,  and  to  govern 


8  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  unruly  wills  and  affections  of  sinful  men. 
With  the  roar  of  artillery  He  would  wake  the 
slumbering  souls  of  His  children,  and  deafen 
the  voice  of  prejudice  and  bigotry  that  keeps 
His  Church  from  being  one  in  its  witness-bear- 
ing power,  and  in  its  readiness  to  serve,  even 
though,  as  yet,  she  cannot  become  one  in  formal 
and  organic  unity.  Through  the  appalling  need 
of  the  world,  through  the  carnage  and  blood  of 
far-scattered  battle  fields,  through  the  cry  of 
fatherless  children,  through  the  lamentation  of 
widows  left  desolate,  through  the  pallor  of 
death  on  the  faces  of  the  splendid  youth  who 
lie  fresh  slain  beneath  the  silent  stars, 
through  the  songs  which  float  from  bivouacked 
hosts  encamped  ready  for  to-morrow's  ordeal 
of  slaughter;  from  hunger  and  famine,  from 
pestilence  and  death,  from  souls  in  their  flight 
to  Paradise,  and  from  the  open  gates  of  Hell 
(for  **war  is  hell"),  the  voice  of  God  is  calling 
to  His  Church  to  consider  what  her  neglect,  and 
what  man's  neglect  of  her  and  of  Him,  have 
brought  to  pass  in  the  earth. 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  9 

THE  CALL  OF  THE  NEAR  FUTURE 

We  cannot  tell  when  over  the  battle  fields 
there  will  be  unfurled  flags  which  will  tell  that 
the  fight  is  done.  The  guns  will  be  rolled  away. 
Swords,  encrimsoned  with  blood,  will  be 
sheathed.  The  mind  and  the  heart  of  man  will 
still  pulse  and  throb.  What  voice  shall  speak 
to  them?  Shall  it  be  the  voice  of  ancient  ani- 
mosities ?  Shall  it  be  still  the  voice  of  the  will 
to  power?  Shall  material  ambition  still  call 
most  loudly  to  the  nations?  Shall  memories  of 
ravished  women  and  of  ruthless  devastation 
appeal  to  the  spirit  of  revenge  f  Shall  the  blood 
of  brothers  and  fathers  slain  cry  aloud  for 
vengeance  to  the  childhood  of  to-day,  and  to 
the  youth  of  to-morrow?  Shall  the  nations  hear 
no  other  voices  than  these? 

Shall  they  hear  America's  voice?  What  will 
it  say  to  them?  Will  it  be  guttural  with  the 
fat  of  the  gain  it  has  gotten  out  of  the  tragedy 
of  its  brothers  over  the  seas?  Shall  it  be  the 
covetous  voice  of  commercialism  that  shall  first 


10  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sweep  over  the  ocean  and  break  upon  the  deso- 
late and  deathly  calm  of  prostrate  and  impov- 
erished peoples'?  Shall  it  be  the  voice  of  Shy- 
lock  or  of  Portia  that  shall  pass  from  our  shores 
to  ring  through  the  encreped  halls  of  judg- 
ment when  the  nations  shall  come  at  last  to  face 
their  creditors'?  What  will  America  have  to 
say,  and  what  will  she  have  to  give  in  that  day? 

Will  she  stretch  out  clean  hands,  and  speak 
with  a  great  purity  of  heart  to  the  nations  when 
the  day  of  opportunity  comes? 

America  must  be  very  clearly  told  that  this 
day  of  her  opportunity  will  be,  also,  the  day  of 
her  greatest  judgment.  The  nations  will,  on 
that  day,  be  prepared,  in  part  at  least,  to  for- 
give her  wavering  neutrality.  They  will  under- 
stand the  perplexities  with  which  her  mind 
was  surrounded.  They  will  pardon  mistakes 
of  judgment.  But  they  will  be  in  no  humour  to 
pardon  cupidity.  If  America  goes  as  a  vulture, 
seeking  what  she  may  devour;  if  she  goes  as 
to  a  bargain  counter  of  a  house  which  has  fallen 
under  disaster;  if  she  goes  as  a  merchant  with 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  11 

outstretched  hands  to  get  more  gold  out  of  the 
bargains  which  she  may  force  by  reason  of 
human  needs  and  human  misfortune,  she  will 
have  then  doomed  herself  to  the  scorn  and  last- 
ing contempt  of  prostrate  nations.  America  will 
then  have  been  weighed  in  the  balances  and 
found  wanting.  She  will  then  have  given  evi- 
dence of  a  prostitution  of  spirit  so  base  that 
perhaps  nothing  short  of  the  purification  of 
the  fires  of  war  could  purge  her  own  life  from 
the  dross  of  selfishness  and  materialism. 

And  what  voice  shall  speak  to  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  America?  Is  there  a  power  in 
the  Christian  Church  at  this  crisis  moment  for 
adequate  leadership?  Is  there  a  priestly  voice 
to  call  America  to  the  altar  of  self-sacrifice,  that 
she  may  there  make  a  great  renunciation?  Is 
there  the  possibility  of  a  solidarity  of  life,  and 
a  practical  unity  of  forces,  out  of  which  the 
prophet's  voice  may  call  America  to  a  great 
consecration  to  a  Christlike  service.  If  many 
voices  are  to  speak,  they  must  speak  as  one 
voice.     Back  of  the  many  voices  there  must 


12  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

be  a  consciousness  of  solidarity  of  mind,  and 
heart,  and  purpose.  If  the  nations  are  to  be 
built  into  a  deep  and  abiding  consciousness  of 
their  interdependence;  if  they  are  to  be  bound 
by  ties  of  brotherhood  into  a  lasting  peace,  the 
spirit  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  must  lead  them. 
Shall  America  voice  that  spirit?  That  she  is 
armed  for  defence  will  make  her  voice  more 
potent.  Her  own  preparedness  will  give  to  her 
appeals  for  brotherhood  a  clearer  note  of  sin- 
cerity. If  she  is  herself  adequately  strong,  she 
can  strongly  appeal  for  the  weak.  But  will 
her  preparedness  be  in  her  armament  alone, 
or  in  her  prepared  spirit  also!  Surely  out  of 
the  open  heavens  alone  can  come  this  spirit  of 
leadership.  Who  shall  call  it  down?  Who  shall 
point  the  nation  to  the  vision  of  those  things 
essential  to  her  true  greatness,  and  to  her  per- 
manent and  honourable  peace  1  Who  shall  lead 
America  that  America  may  lead  the  world? 
What  has  the  Christian  Church  in  this  land 
said  that  has  counted  for  anything  in  bringing 
to  bear  upon  our  National  Government  a  com- 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  13 

pelling  sense  of  its  duty  and  responsibility  to 
protest  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  humanity 
against  the  fiendish  and  brutal  Armenian  mas- 
sacres, which  have  stained  the  earth  with  per- 
haps more  Christian  blood  than  was  shed  during 
all  the  persecutions  of  the  Early  Church?  If 
it  does  not  act,  it  is  because  it  assumes  that  its 
constituents  do  not  care.  Have  we  cared? 
What  voice,  potent  to  compel  protest,  has 
spoken?  If  ever  the  challenge  to  speak  and  to 
help,  or  else  forfeit  the  claim  to  be  called  a 
Christian  nation,  was  made  to  a  people,  it  was 
made,  and  is  now  being  made,  through  the 
martyred,  massacred  Armenian  Christians,  by 
allies  of  civilised  and  Christianised  nations  of 
Europe,  in  the  presence  of  silent  and  compla- 
cent America,  neutral  even  to  the  cause  of  the 
Christ,  whose  Body  we  have  witnessed  tortured, 
without  a  word  of  protest  in  their  defenceless 
helplessness. 

The  curse  and  the  crime  of  such  silent  sanc- 
tion rests  upon  the  Church,  made  impotent  by 
division,  more,  perhaps,  than  it  does  upon  the 


14  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

government  of  the  nation,  left  without  Chris- 
tian guidance  and  a  compelling  Christian  influ- 
ence. 

In  spite  of  the  dire  failures  of  the  Church, 
the  Christ  Spirit  is  still  regnant  in  the  Heav- 
ens, and  waiting,  with  infinite  patience,  to  be- 
come embodied  and  expressed  in  the  life  of  the 
Church.  He  waits  to  lead  the  way.  He  needs 
a  consecrated  Body  in  which,  and  through 
which,  to  speak  and  to  work  His  will  to  peace. 
This  Body  must  be  one.  Some  day  it  may  be 
one  in  its  organic  and  formal  unity.  This  must 
bide  the  time  till  more  humility  of  mind  pre- 
vails, and  when  pride  and  prejudice  are  less 
rampant  in  the  heart  and  mind  ecclesiastic. 
For  this  the  world  in  its  present  crisis  cannot 
wait. 

Has  the  world  in  its  need  the  right  to  ask 
and  to  expect  that  the  Christian  Church  in 
America,  and  all  over  the  world,  shall  respond 
to  its  call  out  of  the  darkness  and  come  to  its 
aid?  The  S.  O.  S.  call  sounds  over  the  seas 
through  the  storm  and  the  darkness.    Shall  we 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  15 

stand  apart?  Shall  we  be  hindered  by  discus- 
sions as  to  the  regularity  of  Orders,  and  the 
validity  of  Sacraments,  by  the  kind  of  Bap- 
tism, and  questions  of  Church  government, 
from  going  with  one  clear  voice,  and  with  one 
united  purpose,  to  speak,  and  to  lead  and  to 
help?  United  in  purpose;  in  desire;  in  the 
great  consciousness  of  world  mission ;  in  a  con- 
secrated willingness  to  serve,  the  Christian 
Church  could,  in  this  day  of  her  greatest  op- 
portunity, do  much  to  lead  America,  and 
through  America,  help  to  lead  the  other  nations 
of  the  earth. 

Never  before  was  the  tragedy  of  disunion  in 
the  Church  more  appalling  than  to-day  as  she 
stands  almost  impotent  in  the  presence  of  the 
great  catastrophe  of  the  nations.  To  remain 
out  of  co-operative  unity  in  the  face  of  this  call, 
imperious  and  appealing,  which  comes  to  her 
for  moral  and  spiritual  leadership;  to  remain 
impotent  to  speak  with  one  consent,  when  the 
day  comes  for  international  reconstruction,  and 
the  creation  of  new  world  ideals,  will  be  crim- 


16  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

inal,  and  desperately  faithless  to  her  divinely 
given  mission. 

WHY   THE    CHURCH   IS   NOT   READY 

It  is  worth  while  that  we  should  pause,  in  the 
face  of  this  vital  call,  which  comes  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  world's  tragedy,  and,  in  the  dawn  of 
the  world 's  crisis  of  reconstruction,  to  consider 
how  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  Church  has 
failed  so  largely,  and  why,  in  the  face  of  her 
greatest  opportunity,  she  stands  to-day  divided, 
and  seemingly  impotent  for  the  world  task  and 
responsibility,  which  she  should,  for  every  rea- 
son, assume.  She  cannot  lead  because  she  is 
divided.  And  why  is  she  divided  ?  What  proc- 
esses of  mind  have  led  her  into  the  tragedies 
of  her  failures,  and  into  her  present  impotence 
to  lead  the  thought  of  the  world,  and  to  deter- 
mine the  international  idealism  of  the  future? 

As  we  review  these  processes  of  thought  and 
attitudes  of  mind,  it  would  be  well  to  keep  two 
questions  constantly  before  our  judgment. 


THE  CRISIS  AND  THE  CHURCH  17 

First:  Cannot  the  reasons  for  our  organic 
disunion  be  surmounted  for  the  sake  of  a  spir- 
itual unity  of  service  and  co-operation,  and  a 
solidarity  of  spiritual  leadership  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  crisis  that  faces  us? 

Second:  Can  we  not,  as  we  serve  together, 
cultivate  a  spirit  of  sympathy  and  understand- 
ing that  will  create  an  atmosphere  in  which 
we  may  candidly  confer  and  co-labour  in  an 
effort  to  create  a  comprehensive  Church,  in- 
clusive and  truly  catholic  in  its  divine  life  and 
spirit,  and  in  its  outlook  towards  ultimate  or- 
ganic unity? 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO 
IMPERILLED  AMERICA 

A  NATION  is  often  unconscious  of  its  real 
inuninent  perils  until  it  is  too  late  to 
avert  them.  They  are  generally  inherent  in 
the  life  of  the  nation  itself.  In  ways  that  are 
insidious,  and  by  the  working  of  forces  which 
blur  the  vision,  and  dull  the  national  conscious- 
ness, these  perils  make  their  approach,  and 
win  their  grip  upon  national  life  and  character. 
The  chief  peril  is  that  which  comes  of  forget- 
fubiess.  It  has  ever  been  the  fore-runner  of 
disaster. 

'* Beware,"  wrote  the  inspired  writer  to 
ancient  Israel,  ''Beware  that  ye  forget  not  the 
Lord  thy  God. ' '    The  temptation  will  come  with 

18 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  19 

tlie  increase  of  silver  and  gold.  It  will  creep 
upon  you  in  your  hours  of  ease.  It  will  assail 
you  in  the  days  of  your  luxury  and  pleasure.  It 
will  steal  upon  you  in  your  consciousness  of 
your  prosperity.  In  that  day,  "Beware  lest 
thou  forget." 

The  peril  lies  in  the  temptation  to  material- 
ism. Things  take  the  place  of  God.  In  the  proc- 
ess of  treasure  gathering,  the  needs  and  the 
values  of  the  soul  are  lost  sight  of.  Gradually 
the  sight  of  the  soul  is  lost.  The  senses  become 
dominant  in  their  appeal,  and  fasten  conscious- 
ness, and  hope  and  desire  and  the  will  upon  the 
things  that  are  seen,  and  faith,  unused,  be- 
comes atrophied.  In  the  process  of  gaining  the 
world  the  soul  is  lost.  It  is  a  gradual  process. 
Few  men  sell  their  birthright  at  the  first  sight 
of  the  mess  of  pottage.  They  do  not  sell  out 
until  hunger  has  grown  very  strong  and  im- 
perious. The  hunger  for  gold,  for  fame,  for 
success,  fed  by  the  call  and  the  cost  and  the 
intoxication  of  high  living,  make  the  sensual 
appeal  that  materialises  the  standards  of  char- 


20  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

acter  building.  Honour,  and  truth,  and  the 
square  deal  are  imperilled  in  the  presence  of 
this  ravenous  sense  of  hunger.  Virtue  is 
blinded,  and  standards  are  relaxed  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  dominating  lure  of  pleasure;  and 
souls  fall  in  the  inevitable  rebound  from 
overstimulated  senses,  and  overtaxed  nerves. 
America  is  imperilled  by  the  immorality  which 
grows  out  of  fatigue,  and  from  the  weariness 
of  pursuit  after  false  gods. 

One  is  not  unmindful  of  the  splendid  intellec- 
tual, moral,  and  spiritual  achievements  which 
have  characterised  our  nation  and  people. 
There  are  many  signs  that  by  very  many  God 
is  not  forgotten. 

When,  however,  the  contributions  made  to 
the  Glory  of  God  and  the  public  good  are  an- 
alysed, it  is  found  that  generosity  of  spirit  is 
the  characteristic  of  a  very  small  minority  of 
the  people;  and  that  those  also  are  in  the  mi- 
nority who  consider  life  a  stewardship,  and 
time  an  opportunity  for  lending  to  others  the 
helping  hand. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  21 

To-day,  as  of  old,  to  the  great  masses  that 
go  by  absorbed  in  selfish  unconcern  of  their 
brothers'  need,  the  question  is  asked,  "Is  it 
nothing  to  you  all  ye  that  pass  by?"  Is  it 
nothing  to  you  that  class  distinctions  are  grow- 
ing more  intense,  and  that  gulfs,  unbridged  by 
understanding  and  sympathy,  are  widening  be- 
tween man  and  man?  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that 
materialism  is  gripping  the  souls  of  men  and 
throttling  the  spirit  of  brotherhood?  Is  it  noth- 
ing to  you  that  great,  ill-gotten  wealth  engen- 
ders great  hatred,  and  that  men  are  combining 
in  industrial  war  against  each  other  and  are 
too  blind  to  see  that  their  interests  are  common 
interests,  and  that,  in  the  end,  capital  and  labour 
must  stand  together,  or  fall  together  in  a  fight 
where  neither  one  can  win  a  lasting  triumph 
over  the  other?  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  preju- 
dice and  bitterness  are  engendered  between  man 
and  man,  and  between  class  and  class,  because 
material  interests  are  hardening  the  hearts  of 
men,  and  blinding  their  minds  so  that  they  can- 
not see  afar  off? 


22  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

If  they  could  see,  they  would  look  backwards. 
They  would  there  perceive  ambition  and  selfish- 
ness and  greed  and  covetousness,  prejudice,  pas- 
sion, hatred,  and  revenge,  armed  with  clubs, 
then  with  iron,  then  with  powder,  and  then  with 
dynamite'  and  poison  gases,  and  aircraft  and 
all  the  implements  of  hell.  If  they  could  see, 
they  would  look  backward  and  behold  the 
corpse-strewn  battle  fields  of  the  world.  Bones 
bleached  white  and  blood  and  carnage  would  tell 
of  man's  inhumanity  to  man  when  love  and 
brotherhood  had  become  dominated  by  the  will 
to  power  inflamed  by  the  greed  for  material 
possession. 

If  we  could  see,  we  would  look  forwards 
There  on  the  fields  of  the  future,  we  would  see 
the  forces,  born  from  the  forgetfulness  of  God, 
armed,  as  they  always,  in  the  end,  do  arm  them- 
selves for  a  deathly  grip,  and  a  ghastly  strug- 
gle. There  is  no  permanent  coherence  in  the 
forces  which  battle  for  dominance  in  the  strug- 
gle for  material  supremacy.  They  are  forces 
at   enmity   with   each   other.     They   set   man 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  2^ 

against  man.  They  have  always  ended  in  war. 
By  what  reason,  and  for  what  cause,  shall 
America  be  exempt? 

Every  war  which  has  been  fought  on  this 
continent  has  had  its  origin  in  some  question 
growing  out  of  property  rights.  As  one  to-day 
feels  the  pulse  of  public  life,  are  there  signs 
that  this  malignant  fever  has  been  entirely 
cured?  As  one  to-day  endeavours  to  diagnose 
the  health  of  the  body  politic,  are  there  no  signs 
that  give  warning  of  a  great  heat  of  blood  and 
passion,  and  of  the  presence  of  forces  disord- 
ered and  poisonous,  which  may,  if  unchecked 
and  unhealed,  produce  a  great  eruption?  By 
what  token  may  America  hope  to  be  exempt 
from  the  consequences  that  have  always  fol- 
lowed from  forgetting  God? 

The  catastrophe  may  not  immediately  come. 
It  may  never  come.  If  it  does  not,  it  will  be 
because  we  have  learned  a  lesson  from  looking 
over  the  seas,  and  from  listening  to  the  voices 
which  come  to  us  from  the  battles  born  out  of 
the  will  bent  on  material  power.     The  battle 


g4  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

does  not  of  necessity  have  to  be  between  nation 
and  nation,  or  between  section  and  section.  The 
most  dire  struggles  are  sometimes  the  ones 
which  arise  among  those  who  had  given  them 
the  chance  to  be  brothers  and  became  en- 
emies. 

Is  there  no  mediator?  Surely  this  is  the 
mission  of  the  Christian  Church.  This  is  the 
day  of  her  opportunity.  To-day  she  can  point 
to  the  power  and  the  brutality  of  the  forces  en- 
gendered  out  of  materialism.  To-day  she  can 
show  the  inevitable  end  of  selfish  ambition  by 
pointing  to  the  carnage  and  torture  and  dev- 
astation of  the  battle  fields  covered  with  men 
fresh  slain.  To-day  she  can  call  men  to  pause, 
and  ask  them  to  consider  the  price  being  paid 
by  their  customers  for  those  things  from  which 
we  are  hoarding  gain.  The  dollars  which  come 
to  us  blood-stained  and  tear-stained, — shall  we 
take  them?  It  seems  inevitable.  It  seems  nec- 
essary that  we  should.  We  have  what  they 
must  have,  and  what,  in  the  light  of  all  pre- 
vious standards,  they  have  the  right  to  pur- 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  25 

chase  and  to  transport,  if  they  can.  American 
business  men  cannot  be  justly  charged  by  any 
nation  now  at  war  as  doing  injustice  in  supply- 
ing the  demand  of  those  who,  not  having  pre- 
pared for  war,  must  prepare  themselves  now 
or  be  conquered  by  those  who  prepared  before 
the  war  began  by  purchasing  what  they  had 
need  of  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 

The  Church  has  a  mission,  however,  in  view 
of  these  millions  of  dollars  that  are  being  paid 
for  the  means  with  which  to  kill  millions  of 

men. 

Europe  to-day  is  stretching  to  us  appealing 
hands.  Her  sick  and  wounded  are  calling  to  us. 
We  hear  them  in  the  stillness  of  the  night. 
Above  the  music  of  the  festive  dance,  we  hear 
them  calling.  Over  the  noise  of  laughter  from 
around  the  costly  banquet  board,  we  hear  them 
calling.  Above  the  applause  of  the  opera  house 
and  theatre,  we  hear  voices  calling  from  afar. 
They  sound  above  the  din  of  industry,  and 
above  the  roar  of  traffic.  They  cry  ' '  Come  over 
and  help  us." 


26  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

The  papers  tell  of  millions  made  from  muni- 
tion orders  and  of  thousands  given  to  hospital 
appeals.  The  mission  of  the  Church  is  to 
arouse  the  American  conscience  to  correct  the 
proportion. 

To-morrow  the  appeals  will  become  more  fre- 
quent, more  numerous  and  more  pathetic. 
There  will  come  the  cry  of  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  ten  or  more  war-stricken  nations. 
They  will  be  asking  for  bread.  They  will  be 
begging  for  clothing  to  protect  them  from  the 
next  winter's  cold.  They  will  point  us  to  homes 
in  ashes,  and  to  brothers  and  fathers  slain. 
They  will  tell  us  of  children  born  of  brutality. 
They  will  ask,  ''Is  it  nothing  to  you?" 

The  mission  of  the  Church  is  to  prepare  the 
heart  of  America  to  generous  and  sacrificial 
response.  If  ever,  since  the  merciful  Christ  set 
His  Church  to  be  His  witness  in  the  world,  there 
was  need  for  prayers  for  a  divine  benediction 
of  power,  this  is  surely  the  time  for  such  inter- 
cession. If  the  Church  should  fail,  if  America 
should  fail,  it  will  be  because  the  forces  of 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  27 

materialism  have  so  gripped  her  mind  and 
atrophied  her  heart  that  they  will  be  prophetic 
of  her  own  certain  doom.  If  it  should  prove, 
in  that  coming  day  of  opportunity  and  of  judg- 
ment, that  greed  and  selfishness  so  dominate 
our  national  life  as  to  make  us  stingy  and  un- 
generous in  our  response  to  these  cries  that  are 
now  coming,  and  are  sure  to  come  with  a  more 
pitiable  and  appealing  voice,  then  as  surely  as 
the  forgotten  God  still  lives,  He  will,  through 
the  very  forces  which  have  usurped  His  place 
in  our  national  life,  call  us  to  the  bitter  judg- 
ment of  blood.  It  will  not  be,  it  never  has  been, 
an  arbitrary  judgment,  for  God  is  Love.  It 
will  be  the  judgment  of  natural  cause  and  effect. 
It  will  be  the  judgment  of  the  sure  and  inviolate 
working  of  the  laws  of  that  natural  and  material 
realm  in  which  those  deliberately  choose  to  live 
and  die  who  forget  God,  and  remove  themselves 
from  the  government  and  control  of  His  merci- 
ful and  creative  spiritual  laws. 

It  requires  no  special  and  unique  prophetic 
gift  to  enable  the  Church  to  fulfill  her  mission, 


28  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

which  is  to  tell  men  this :  It  requires  only  a 
knowledge  of  history,  and  a  plain  understand- 
ing of  the  clear  revelation  which  He  has  given 
of  the  ways  in  which  natural  and  material  forces 
always  work  in  that  darkness  which  comes  when 
man  forgets  God  and  turns  to  worship  and  seek 
and  serve  things  visible,  material  and  soul- 
enslaving. 

The  Church  cannot  fulfill  this  mission  to 
which  she  is  called  in  this  crisis  of  the  world  if 
she  herself  is  fettered  by  formalism,  manacled 
by  materialism,  and  made  impotent  to  speak 
and  serve  by  reason  of  disunion. 

She  must  make  a  supreme  sacrifice  before  she 
can  ask  it  of  others  with  appealing  power.  She 
must  come  to  the  altar  of  consecration  and 
sacrifice  her  ''pride  and  prejudice  and  whatso- 
ever else  may  hinder  her  from  godly  union  and 
concord."  She  must  not  bide  the  time  till  aca- 
demic interpretations,  and  theory  differences, 
and  uncertain  and  non-essential  dogma  barriers 
have  been  settled  by  schoolmen,  and  cleared 
away    by    lengthy    investigation    and    discus- 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  29 

sion.  This  great  business  of  the  King  re- 
quires haste. 

Sometimes  the  best  way  to  make  haste  is  to 
pause  in  the  silence  and  take  inventory.  If  we 
must  go  on  a  swift,  far  mission,  we  may  well 
store  away  our  impedimenta.  We  may  also 
wisely,  for  the  time  being,  label  and  put  aside  in 
safety  vaults  many  of  our  long-cherished  treas- 
ures. Among  these  may  be  some  of  the  ques- 
tions concerning  our  orders  and  Church  govern- 
ment. We  can  return  to  them  afterward.  Or- 
ders, sacraments,  a  great  consciousness  of  mis- 
sion, a  supreme  confidence  in  Christ,  and  a 
larger  trust  in  our  brother  Christian  missioner, 
we  need  to  take  with  us.  The  theories,  interpre- 
tations, the  exclusive  claims,  which  divide  us, 
and  tend  to  keep  us  from  service  mobilisation 
in  the  emergency  call,  must  be  deposited  for 
safe  keeping  until  some  of  the  vital  world  prob- 
lems have  been  solved,  as  they  cannot  be  solved 
without  the  united  purpose  and  concerted  voice, 
and  without  the  will  to  serve  made  one  in  Christ. 

That  some  may  be  aided  in  making  sacrificial 


30  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

response  to  this  clear  call  of  Christ  to  His  whole 
Church,  what  is  written  in  the  pages  following 
is  presented  with  the  earnest  hope  that  the  pur- 
pose in  the  heart  of  the  writer  will  be  taken  as 
an  excuse  and  apology  for  what  may,  through 
mental  limitation,  be  said  amiss,  in  the  effort 
made  to  examine  some  of  the  causes  of  dis- 
union, and  in  the  further  effort  to  point  to  the 
impelling  and  appealing  need  for  a  closer  and 
more  vital  Christian  co-operation,  that  with 
a  common  purpose  we  may  enable  the  Church 
of  God  in  America  to  guide  and  help  America 
to  guide  and  help  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth. 


CHAPTER  III 
MATERIALISM 

THE  dominating  power  of  materialism  is 
evident  in  every  realm  of  thought  and 
experience.  Materialism  may  be  defined  as 
the  affirmation  of  matter,  and  the  forces 
which  proceed  from  matter,  and  the  energies 
directed  toward  material  aggrandisement,  as 
being  the  sole  substance  and  source  of  power, 
causation,  and  of  creative  and  constructive  en- 
ergy in  the  universe.  It  is  the  denial  of  a  vital 
and  conscious  force  or  personality,  creative  and 
constructive  in  its  operation,  in  the  world  and 
in  the  life  of  man.  It  is  the  denial  of  any  im- 
material part  in  man  or  in  the  universe.  It  is 
the  doctrine  of  causation  and  of  desire  and  will, 
which  is  opposed  to  spiritism. 

31 


32  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

The  materialist  is  one  whose  desires,  ambi- 
tions, energies  and  will  are  directed  toward  the 
attainment  of  material  things  alone,  or  who 
asserts  and  teaches  that  physical  domination 
by  physical  force  is  the  destined  end  of  man 
and  of  nations. 

This  concept  of  the  universe  and  of  man  is 
the  basis  of  widely  diffused  and  accepted  sys- 
tems of  philosophy,  religion,  ethics  and  politics. 
It  has  become  the  dominating  practical  philoso- 
phy of  the  major  part  of  current  commercial- 
ism, and  of  international,  political  and  diplo- 
matic procedure.  It  is  this  concept  which  has 
expressed  itself  in  the  creation  and  upbuild- 
ing of  that  product  which  the  pride  and  blind- 
ness of  the  workmen  have  named  civilisation. 

This  is  the  dominating  philosophical  and  ethi- 
cal concept  which  lies  back  of  the  great  world 
war,  and  which  is  the  cause  of  it.  In  one  na- 
tion, at  least,  there  is  found  the  candour  which 
confesses  it.  There,  in  the  most  dominating 
class  in  the  great  social  and  governmental  fab- 
ric, *'the  will  to  power"  has  been  openly  as- 


MATERIALISM  33 

serted  as  being  the  end  of  national  ambition, 
and  the  means  to  this  end.    That  has  been  as- 
serted as  being  moral  which  aids  in  the  attain- 
ment of  this  end.    Whatever  is  prejudicial  to 
the  material  growth  and  power  and  force  of 
empire  is  immoral.    Nietzsche  taught  that  the 
Christian   religion  was  the  most  immoral   of 
all  religions  because  it  inculcated  sympathy  and 
a  love  for  one's  enemies,  which  tended  to  re- 
strain *Hhe  will  to  power,"  and  to  thwart  the 
ambition  to  make  the  empire  with  its  culture 
idea  dominant  over  the  rest  of  mankind.    There 
were  many  who  were  disposed  to  think  that 
this  philosophy  was  but  the  expression  of  a 
distorted  mind  which  gave  vent  to  its  final  ma- 
terialistic ravings  in  the  insane  asylum  of  Jena, 
until  evidence  was  given  in  Belgium,  and  else- 
where, that  the  philosophy  that  the  end  justi- 
fied the  means  seemed  dominant  in  the  war 
councils  of  the  German  Empire.     Of  course, 
the  end  not  yet  having  been  attained  and  real- 
ised, it  may  be  impossible,  from  the  viewpoint 
of  the  materialist,  to  judge  as  to  the  moral  value 


34  THE  CHURCH  UNCHAINED 

of  the  means.  Those,  however,  whose  theories 
of  morals  and  of  humanity  have  another  basis, 
and  whose  philosophy  includes  the  Master's 
law  of  love  and  brotherhood,  do  not  have  to 
wait  until  this  system  finds  its  ''place  in  the 
sun*'  before  they  pronounce  judgment.  They 
feel  convinced  that  the  fundamental  error  and 
inherent  falseness  of  this  philosophy  is  made 
clearly  manifest  in  its  methods  of  procedure, 
entirely  regardless  of  what  the  distant  end  at- 
tained may  be  ultimately  shown  to  be. 

This  philosophical  concept  finds  its  expres- 
sion in  ''The  Struggle  for  Law,"  by  Jhering, 
who  seeks  to  substantiate  the  contention  that 
in  force  alone  is  to  be  found  the  basis  and  rea- 
son for  law,  and  that  law  has  won  its  place  in 
society  through  the  process  of  self-defence  and 
self-assertion. 

That  this  materialistic  philosophy  has  not 
been  thus  publicly  and  officially  accepted  by 
other  so-called  civilised  nations  does  not  hide 
from  view  the  fact  that  other  nations  engaged 
in  that  hideous  war  have  sought  their  power 


MATERIALISM  35 

and  attained  their  material  greatness  by  fol- 
lowing ambitions,  and  using  means  no  less  ma- 
terialistic than  those  disseminated  in  German 
philosophical  and  ethical  writings,  and  openly- 
avowed  and  contended  for  by  the  German  army. 
Nor  are  signs  lacking  to  show  that  the  grip 
of  this  philosophical  and  ethical  materialism 
is  fixed  with  fierce  tenacity  upon  the  heart  and 
mind  of  American  civilisation. 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  to  assent  to  the 
fact  that,  in  the  consciousness  of  the  nations 
engaged  in  war,  there  may  exist,  and  doubtless 
does  exist,  a  certain  culture  or  altruistic  ideal- 
ism which  it  is  sought  to  establish  ultimately 
in  the  nation  and  on  the  earth.  This  intention 
may  indeed  exist  in  the  national  consciousness 
just  as  in  the  individual  there  may  exist  the  in- 
tention of  devoting  large  contributions  of  ill- 
gotten  wealth  to  the  cause  of  culture  and  toward 
the  alleviation  of  human  misery.  There  is, 
however,  a  growing  sense  of  conviction  in  the 
social,  civic  and  national  consciousness  that 
this  intention  proclaimed  by  an  individual  does 


36  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

not  constitute  any  moral  justification  for  con- 
ducting sweat  shops,  and  prostituting  childhood 
to  industrial  accomplishment,  or  for  oppressing 
the  hireling  in  his  wages.  Nor  does  it  justify 
the  socialist  in  seeking  to  confiscate  private 
property,  or  the  anarchist  in  seeking  to  destroy 
it,  because  of  some  dream  of  a  far-off  social 
betterment,  which  may  be  by  these  methods 
secured.  There  is  good  reason  to  fear  and  to 
expect  that  the  character  formed  during  the 
process  of  seeking,  by  brutal  means,  the  will 
to  power  will  not  be  the  kind  and  quality  of 
individual  or  national  character  whose  dom- 
inance would  ever  tend  to  conduce  to  true  cul- 
ture of  soul,  or  to  the  permanent  enrichment 
and  elevation  of  human  life.  The  sincerity 
of  the  ultimate  intention  may  be  fairly  judged 
by  the  nature  and  kind  of  means  used  and  jus- 
tified to  secure  its  final  expression. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  Christ,  there  had 
grown  up  in  Babylon,  Assyria,  Egypt,  Rome 
and  Greece  great  material  empires  where 
wealth,  power,  pleasure  and  sensuality  were 


MATERIALISM  37 

dominant,  and  where  materialism  was  regnant. 
One  by  one  these  empires  declined  and  fell  into 
disintegration  and  destruction. 

Then  there  came  the  One  long  promised  and 
long  expected.  He  stood  in  the  midst  of  His 
people  with  a  body  clothed  in  the  garb  of  a 
workman,  and  proclaimed  the  great  spiritual 
background  of  human  life.  He  spake  as  never 
man  spake.  He  lived  as  never  man  had  lived. 
He  gave  to  life  new  terms  of  value  and  new 
standards  of  measurement.  Blinded  by  ma- 
terialism, poisoned  by  ambitions  for  worldly 
power.  His  people  knew  Him  not.  With  a  ma- 
terially blinded  mind  they  judged  Him.  With 
a  materialistic  prejudice  they  rejected  Him. 
With  a  hatred  engendered  by  the  bigotry  born 
and  nurtured  under  a  materialised  ecclesiasti- 
cism  they  crucified  Him. 

Then  there  dawned  upon  those  who  had  heard 
Him,  and  followed  Him,  and  who  heard  Him 
again  speaking  the  great  Gospel  of  a  great, 
conquering  love,  which  the  powers  of  hate  and 
death  had  failed  to  suppress,  a  clearer  vision 


38  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  Him,  and  of  life  and  its  meaning  and  purpose 
revealed  in  Him  who  had  been  called  through 
death  to  live  as  King  of  life  and  truth  and 
love. 

"With  the  vision  of  His  cross,  and  in  the  power 
of  His  resurrection  life.  His  Church  went  forth 
to  sacrifice  and  to  win  dominion  over  the  hearts 
and  wills  of  men.  Persecuted  by  the  forces  of 
materialism,  relying  upon  the  promise  and  pres- 
ence of  Him  Who,  unseen,  dwelt  among  them, 
and  whose  Spirit  dwelt  within,  the  Church  gave 
her  witness  to  the  world  of  her  unconquerable 
faith. 

Then,  in  the  presence  of  the  forces  and  sym- 
bols of  imperial  materialism,  the  Church  began 
to  lose  her  clear  vision  power.  She  drew  near 
to  the  outstretched  arm  of  empire,  and  began 
to  lean  upon  the  arm  of  flesh.  Then  she  ap- 
propriated this  arm,  and  the  sword  that  was  in 
the  hand  of  it.  Then,  to  the  forces  of  material- 
ism, there  was  added  the  materialised  Church. 

Golden,  gilded,  and  dominantly  imperious, 
she  asserted  her  will  to  power,  and  with  the 


MATERIALISM  39 

sword  she  had  seized,  she  sought  to  enforce  her 
decrees. 

Still,  however,  there  lingered  a  light  which 
never  deserted  the  lamp,  though  at  times  it  flick- 
ered and  seemed  almost  to  die  away.  Always 
there  were  faithful  souls  who  ministered  at  the 
altar  and  fanned  the  waning  flame  through 
prayer  and  sacrificial  devotion.  Thus  it  hap- 
pened, as  Guizot  asserts  in  his  **  History  of 
European  Civilisation,*'  that,  amid  the  dark- 
ness and  corruption  of  mediaBval  Europe,  the 
one  ray  of  light  was  that  which  ever  proceeded 
from  the  flame  of  truth  and  virtue  which  per- 
sisted in  lingering  in,  and  shining  through,  the 
Christian  Church  in  spite  of  her  own  material- 
ism and  formality. 

The  student  of  ecclesiastical  history  is,  how- 
ever, fully  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  Church 
soon  became  the  very  imperfect  and  grossly 
materialised  representative  of  the  simple  spir- 
itual character  and  teaching  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth. 


CHAPTER  IV 
CIVILISATION 

THAT  whicli  men  call  civilisation  has  been, 
and  is  still,  often  confused  with  Chris- 
tianity. The  two  terms  are  in  no  sense 
synonymous.  They  are  most  largely  and  dis- 
tinctly contrary,  the  one  to  the  other.  Indeed, 
civilisation,  so  called,  has  ever  been,  and  is  now, 
composed  of  far  more  barbaric  than  Christian 
elements.  The  struggle  of  God  to  manifest 
Himself  through  the  Church  has  been  marvel- 
lously patient  and  divinely  persistent.  Without 
the  restraining  and  constructive  power  of  the 
Spirit's  witness  and  influence  through  the 
Church,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  to  what  depths 
of  degradation  humanity  would  have  fallen. 
It  is  quite  impossible  to  determine  what  this 

40 


CIVILISATION  41 

level  would  have  been  by  pointing  to  the  status 
of  barbarian  people.  Among  them  we  find  the 
unorganised  and  undeveloped  primitive  human 
instincts,  both  of  brutality  and  morality.  In 
that  state  of  society  which  we  have  denominated 
civilisation,  we  find  these  instincts  and  impulses 
developed  and  most  highly  organised. 

Where  this  development  has  taken  place  un- 
der the  guidance  and  direction  of  materialistic 
education ;  where  that  which  is  called  education, 
without  religious  and  spiritual  inspiration  and 
enrichment,  has  moulded  the  mind;  where  the 
end  of  education  has  been  to  train  the  mind  to 
dominate  matter  and  make  a  living,  and  win 
a  fortune ;  where  the  cultivation  of  mental  alert- 
ness and  ingenuity  has  been  pursued  for  the 
sake  of  amassing  wealth  and  enjoying  pleasure, 
and  where  knowledge,  apart  from  the  considera- 
tion of  love  and  brotherhood,  has  been  taught 
as  being  and  giving  power,  it  has  come  to  pass 
that,  as  an  inevitable  result,  a  so-called  civilisa- 
tion has  been  built  up  which  is  indeed  most 
largely  a  refined,  organised  and  tremendously 


42  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

potent  development  of  barbarism.  Civilisa- 
tion without  the  restraints  and  compelling  in- 
fluences of  spiritual  life  is  more  barbaric  than 
primitive  barbarism.  Brutal  forces,  selfish  in- 
stincts, and  material  ambitions,  organised  and 
directed  by  a  keen  mind,  correlated  and  in- 
corporated by  shrewd  mentality,  used  in  the 
pursuit  of  personal  or  national  selfishness,  by 
thought  and  desire  and  will,  which  have  been 
educated  to  be  efficient,  but  which  have  not  been 
trained  to  recognise  and  respect  the  rights  of 
others,  may  be  named  civilisation,  but  the  name 
does  not  make  the  product  other  than  it  is  in 
fact,  namely,  a  gigantic,  organised  system  of 
brutal  barbarism.  The  civilisation  which  is 
inherently  materialised,  rationalised,  and  made 
mentally  potent  and  dominant,  has  no  claim 
whatsoever  to  be  called  or  considered  Chris- 
tian civilisation.  It  would  be  as  justifiable  to 
speak  of  a  sunlit  night. 

It  was  because  his  own  materialism  had  so 
blinded  his  vision  that  Herbert  Spencer  failed 
to  see  this,  and,  therefore,  argued  against  Chris- 


CIVILISATION  4^ 

tiaiiity,  seeking  to  prove  his  contention  by  point- 
ing to  the  elemental  virtues  of  barbarian  peo- 
ple, and  comparing  what  he  saw  there  with  the 
debauchery,  sensuality,  murder,  lust  and  cruelty 
of  ''Christian  civilisation."    He  failed  to  see 
that  a  vast  proportion  of  that  which  he  called 
Christian  civilisation  is  refined  and  organised 
materialistic  barbarism.    He  failed  to  see  that 
the  very  system  which  he  compares  with  bar- 
barism is,  because  of  its  materialism,  the  dead- 
liest foe  to  the  progress  and  incarnation  in  hu- 
manity of  the  spirit  of  Christ.    He  failed  to  see 
that  the  only  fair  comparison  would  be  between 
the  best  barbarian  and  Jesus  Christ,  or  between 
the  highest  ideals  of  barbarian  tribes  and  the 
spiritual  idealism  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.    He 
failed,  as  we  often  fail,  to  see  that  Christ  and 
the  Christ  spirit  are  not  synonymous  with  the 
ecclesiastical  organisation,  which,  at  times,  is 
so  materialistic  that  it  hides  from  view  the 
simple  truth  proclaimed  as  essential  to  salvation 
in  the  great  Gospel  of  redemption.    While,  in 
many  ways,  Christianity  has  put  a  saving  heart 


44  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  hope  into  civilisation,  yet  in  deed  and  in 
truth,  civilisation,  so  called,  is,  and  has  gen- 
erally been,  the  material  god  who  blinds  men's 
eyes  and  deadens  their  ears,  so  that  they  neither 
see  nor  hear  the  great  nearby  God,  and  they 
fail  to  know  the  Christ  who,  unseen  and 
rejected,  stands  among  us  crowned  with 
thorns. 

Time  and  time  again,  the  priests  of  His  re- 
ligion have  been  so  absorbed  in  building  the 
material  temple,  and  manipulating  and  defend- 
ing the  organisation,  and  have  been  so  engaged 
in  intrenching  themselves  behind  their  inherited 
and  vested  rights,  and  defending  themselves 
against  encroachments  upon  their  exclusive 
claims,  that  the  Church,  which  was  sent  to  be 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  and  to  protest  against 
the  dominance  of  materialism,  became  herself 
a  part  of  a  great  materialistic  system,  in  which 
the  very  priests  of  Christianity  aided,  by  their 
false  emphasis,  in  putting  Christ  to  open  shame 
before  the  minds  of  men  who,  like  Herbert 
Spencer,  judge  Christ's  religion  by  the  gross 


CIVILISATION  45 

and  petty  materialistic  and  formalistic  expres- 
sions of  distorted  ecclesiasticism. 

It  is,  however,  to  be  remembered  that  the 
failure  is  not  wholly,  if  indeed  it  is  chiefly, 
chargeable  to  the  Church.  She  has  much 
through  which  to  make  her  message  penetrate. 
The  indifference  engendered  by  wealth  and  lux- 
ury and  comfort,  the  neglect  of  soul  culture 
resulting  from  the  ceaseless  pursuit  of  material 
things,  the  willingness,  the  supreme  determina- 
tion to  gain  the  world  regardless  of  the  loss 
of  the  soul,  makes  it  extremely  hard  for  the 
Church,  with  a  spiritual  intent  and  purpose,  to 
find  a  point  of  contact  between  human  interest 
and  spiritual  truth.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind 
that,  when  the  Christ  Himself  stood  among  men, 
they  heard  Him  not,  saw  Him  not,  and  knew 
Him  not.  The  Church  should  be  very  much  in 
earnest,  and  deeply  conscious  of  the  necessity 
of  being  vitally  spiritual,  but  if  she  would  not 
lose  courage,  slie  must  pray  for  a  divine  quality 
of  patience  and  perseverance. 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that,  when  her  pearls 


4e  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

are  rejected  and  trampled  under  foot  by  civil- 
ised barbarians,  she  should  turn  with  some  en- 
thusiasm of  hope  to  the  more  elemental  and 
less  materialised  barbarian  people  and  seek  to 
show  the  power  of  her  divine  mission  in  her  con- 
tact with  the  primitive  child-like  honesty  and 
trust  and  obedience  of  the  uncivilised  heathen? 

It  is  not  hard  to  understand  the  enthusiasm 
of  Bishop  Tucker  of  Uganda,  who  returned  to 
London  aglow  with  the  joy  of  the  wonderful 
witness  given  by  his  people  to  the  sincerity  of 
their  simple  faith  in  Christ.  One  could  but 
feel  as  one  listened  to  the  recital  of  the  tokens 
of  this  people's  sacrificial  devotion,  that  to  them 
the  revelation  of  Christ  had  meant  everything, 
and  had  led  them  to  enthrone  Him  as  King  su- 
preme over  their  lives. 

Except  for  the  danger  of  being  devoured  by 
cannibals,  the  missionary  to  the  dwellers  in  the 
palatial  homes  of  our  so-called  civilised  lands 
has  a  far  harder  task  than  the  missionary  to 
more  primitive  barbarian  people.  He  has  a  less 
hard  and  less  thick  outer  surface  through  which 


CIVILISATION  47 

to  penetrate  than  does  he  who  has  to  speak  to 
the  gold-encrusted  souls  atrophied  by  luxury, 
living  amid  the  volatile,  sublimated  and  insid- 
ious influences  of  refined  barbarism,  and  sen- 
sualised  materialism.  The  inspiration  which 
comes  to  him  who  has  the  courage  to  persist 
in  seeking  to  penetrate  this  hardened  crust  of 
modem  materialism,  comes  largely  from  the 
fact  that  those  who  come  out  of  this  environment 
come  with  souls  made  strong  from  having 
broken  heavy  and  gross  chains.  The  cost  of 
emancipation,  and  the  terrible  struggle  to  be 
free,  is  that  which  gives  to  the  real  Christian 
in  the  midst  of  modem  materialistic  civilisation 
his  splendid  and  far-reaching  power  of  influ- 
ence. Those  who  know  the  downward  pull  of 
so-called  civilisation  know  and  appreciate  what 
it  has  cost  to  climb.  The  soul  made  free  comes 
to-day  into  the  glory  of  the  life  redeemed 
through  great  tribulation. 

The  superficial  nature  of  materialistic 
thought  is  observed  also  in  the  judgment  pro- 
nounced against  the  wisdom  of  the  Church  in 


48  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

**  sending  missionaries  to  disturb  the  primitive 
simplicity  of  life  found  among  many  barbarian 
people."  Here  again  it  is  not  noted  that  what 
disturbs  and  distorts  and  spoils  their  life  is  not 
the  simple  truth  revealed  by  the  missionary 
that  goes  to  tell  them  of  God's  great  love  re- 
vealed in  Jesus  Christ,  but  the  vices  and  dis- 
tortions of  materialised  civilisation,  which 
pushes  in  through  the  door  opened  by  the  mis- 
sionary, and  which  would  be  opened  and  en- 
tered by  commercialism  even  though  the  mis- 
sionary were  not  the  pioneer. 

Before  a  fair  tribunal,  Christianity  will  never 
be  judged  by  the  collapse  of  the  civilisation 
which  has  collapsed  because  of  the  presence 
and  growth  of  materialism  which  repudiated 
the  Christian  contention,  and  refused  to  hear 
and  heed  the  Gospel  of  sacrificial  renunciation, 
or  to  follow  Christ  in  His  call  and  leadership 
into  a  life  of  simple  faith,  of  simple  love  and 
of  trustful  obedience  and  self-forgetful  serv- 
ice. 

Prefixing  the  word  Christian  to  civilisation 


CIVILISATION  49 

may  produce  confusion  of  thought,  but  doing  so 
does  not  produce  Christian  character.  This 
comes  to  men  and  nations  through  a  process  of 
cross  bearing  and  crucifixion,  which  the  Chris- 
tian Church  has  not  yet  succeeded  in  leading 
civilisation  to  consent  to  accept,  and  which  the 
Church,  at  times,  has  failed  to  teach  by  the 
power  of  her  own  example. 

That  men  may  be  turned  from  sacrificing 
others  to  the  sacrifice  of  themselves  for  others; 
that  civilisation,  so  refined  and  skilled  m  its 
barbarism,  may  be  made  indeed  Christian  is 
the  gigantic  task  of  the  Christian  Church.  The 
god  of  this  world,  the  barbarian's  god,  must 
be  dethroned,  and  Christ  must  be  crowned  Kmg 
of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords. 

The  Church,  in  order  to  fulfill  her  mission  to 
materialised  civilisation,  must  renounce  the 
world  and  the  flesh  before  she  can  denounce  the 
vain  pomps  and  glories  and  sensual  entice- 
ments of  materialism.  The  chains  which  bind 
the  world  cannot  be  broken  by  human  might 
or  human  power,  but  by  the '  ^  All  Power"  prom- 


50  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ised  by  Christ  to  His  Church,  but  which  she  has 
never  adequately  appropriated. 

Materialism  awaits  its  Master  Who  will  come 
with  conquering  power  in  the  day  dawn  of  a 
great  and  simple  faith  which  worketh  by  love. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  SPIRITUAL  MISSION  OP  THE 
CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

KNOWING  what  was  in  man,  and  knowing 
what  was  in  the  world  that  would  appeal 
to  man,  and  enslave  him,  unless  he  was  pre- 
pared to  resist,  the  Christ  constituted  His 
Church  to  be  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  and 
promised,  through  His  Church,  to  give  His 
Spirit  that  men  might  know  the  truth  that 
would  enable  them  to  overcome  the  world  with 
its  material  and  sensual  appeal. 

He  gave  to  the  Church  the  inspiration  of  His 
own  life  in  its  relation  to  materialism.  Know- 
ing that  men  would  question  as  to  the  origin 
and  destiny  of  the  soul.  He  said,  ''I  came  forth 
from  God."    '^  go  to  the  Father."    He  said 

51 


52  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  His  mission,  "The  Father  hath  sent  me." 
The  purpose  for  which  He  was  sent  He  said 
was  ''to  give  eternal  life"  to  men  that  they  too, 
who  had  come  from  God,  might  return  to  Him 
with  lives  enriched  through  contact  with  God 
in  their  pilgrimage  through  things  material. 

In  coming  into  the  world,  He  chose  to  come 
simply.  The  manger  was  His  cradle.  His 
home  was  a  workman's  cottage.  His  boyhood 
was  spent  at  the  carpenter's  bench,  in  the  open 
fields,  and  in  the  streets  of  an  humble  village. 
His  public  ministry  began  in  the  light  which 
came  from  the  open  heavens  as  He  prayed. 
He  passed  into  the  solitude  of  the  wilderness. 
There  He  was  tempted  by  the  god  of  this  world 
who  sought  to  attach  Him  to  the  material  sys- 
tem. Before  Him  passed  in  review  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world,  and  the  glory  of  them.  And  He 
asked,  shall  I  accept  and  seek  to  use  these  pow- 
ers of  materialism  as  means  for  building  up 
the  Kingdom  of  God  f  He  considered  the  terms 
upon  which  they  were  offered,  and  determined 
that  He  would  rather  suffer  and  be  free.    From 


SPIRITUAL  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH       53 

the  wilderness  He  came  to  serve  men.  He  went 
about  doing  good.  He  had  not  where  to  lay 
His  head.  One  day  the  multitude  came  and 
would  have  crowned  Him  King.  He  refused 
the  crown,  and  went  apart  into  a  solitary  place 
to  commune  with  God.  Out  of  the  silence  He 
came  and  spake  with  authority,  "as  never  man 
spake." 

He  selected  chosen  witnesses  to  be  with  Him, 
and,  drawing  them  aside  by  the  quiet  lake,  or 
into  the  mountain  solitude.  He  taught  them. 
He  told  them  not  to  depend  on  things  material. 
They  were  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
They  were  not  to  lay  up  for  themselves  treas- 
ures upon  earth.  For  their  means  of  power 
they  were  to  go  often  into  the  solitary  place. 
They  were  unlearned  and  ignorant  men,  and 
poor.  He  gave  them  a  simple  and  beautiful 
Gospel.  It  passed  into  their  hearts.  It  lingered 
there.  Afterward,  when  some  of  them  came 
to  write,  they  remembered  how  very  simply  He 
had  talked  to  those  whom  He  met  by  the  way- 
side.   They  recalled  how  He  turned  their  minds 


54  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

away  from  rational  speculation  and  left  them 
questioning  in  the  presence  of  mystery.  They 
recalled  how  He  ever  penetrated  through  ritual 
observance,  and  dwelt  upon  the  spiritual  truth 
which  lay  as  the  background  of  phenomena. 
They  told  how  He  made  the  lilies,  and  fields, 
and  the  vineyards  and  the  fishermen's  nets, 
and  the  seed  sown  by  the  husbandmen  and  other 
incidents  of  the  commonplace,  sacramental  of 
the  great  truths  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  They 
told  how  He  took  them  into  an  upper  room  and 
gave  them  there  the  greater  sacrament  of  His 
own  life  and  death,  and  recalled  His  interces- 
sory prayer,  and  His  parting  promise  of  a 
Spirit  who  should  come  to  guide  them  into  all 
truth.  They  recalled  the  agony  of  prayer  in 
Gethsemane,  and  filled  priceless  pages  with  the 
simple  record  of  His  passing  on  to  Calvary. 
They  tell  us  that  they  did  not  understand.  They 
paint  the  gloom  which  enveloped  them  without 
His  presence.  Then  the  pages  glow  with  celes- 
tial light,  and  from  them  ring  the  glad  notes  of 
triumph. 


SPIRITUAL  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH      55 

Again  He  walks  with  them,  but  they  know 
Him  not,  for  they  are  reasoning  with  Him,  and 
with  each  other,  by  the  way.    The  silence  comes. 
The  stars  appear.    He  takes  bread  and  breaks 
it,  and  as  He  speaks,  they  know  Him.     Then, 
as  their  minds  begin  to  wonder  and  to  try  to 
understand,  He  vanishes,  to  come  again  into 
their  midst  in  the  silence  of  the  morning  as  they 
sit  by  the  lake.    They  tell  how  He  led  them  up 
into  a  mountain  and  commissioned  them  to  go 
teach    and    incorporate    men    into    His    Body 
through  Baptism.    He  had  already  told  them  to 
break  the  bread  in  remembrance  of  His  broken 
Body,  and  to  drink  of  the  cup  in  remembrance 
of  His  blood  outpoured.    He  does  not,  in  His 
parting   commission,    re-emphasise    this.      He 
lifts  His  hands  in  blessing  and  becomes  in- 
visible among  them. 

All  these  things  and  many  others  they  re- 
membered, and,  that  His  Church  might  know 
its  Lord  and  follow  Him,  they  wrote  these 
things  down  to  be  the  heritage  of  the  Christian 
Church,  its  character  and  foundation.     They 


56  THE  CHURCH  lENCHAINED 

preached  to  others  what  they  had  seen  and 
heard  and  known,  and  then  passed  into  the 
world  invisible,  leaving  others  to  be  His  wit- 
nesses. 

There  is  no  complex  system,  and  no  tinge  of 
materialism  in  the  story  given.  The  great  love 
of  God  for  man  stands  clearly  revealed  in  His 
incarnation,  and  the  heart  of  the  Christ  is,  in 
the  Gospels,  thrown  open  to  the  world,  and  all 
are  asked  to  come  and  be  of  His  Body  who  will 
come  in  simple  faith,  and  follow  in  the  path 
of  simple  obedience  bearing  their  cross,  and 
giving  their  witness. 

Surely  it  has  not  been  because  of  Him  or  His 
teaching  that  civilisation  has  grown  materialis- 
tic, and  greedy,  and  full  of  lust  and  ambition, 
and  has  become  dominated  by  the  will  to  power. 
Surely  He  did  not  give  the  inspiration  which  led 
to  the  battles  of  the  schoolmen,  or  to  the  doc- 
trine of  temporal  power,  for  *'my  Kingdom,*' 
He  said,  ''is  not  of  this  world.''  Surely  He 
cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  spirit  of  ma- 
terialism, and  of  formalism,  and  of  exclusive 


SPIRITUAL  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH      57 

logical  interpretation  which  crept  in  and  domi- 
nated the  Church.  Surely  the  Church  is  gravely 
responsible  if,  in  the  light  of  His  life,  she  puts 
the  emphasis  upon  the  wrong  things,  or  puts 
upon  rightful  things  a  wrong  and  disproportion- 
ate emphasis. 

The  great  crisis  has  come.  Shall  not  the 
Church  pause  and  take  inventory?  The  meth- 
ods, the  emphasis,  the  organisation,  the  theories, 
which  have  dominated  her  life  have  failed  to 
stem  the  tide  of  materialism.  It  has  deluged 
civilisation.  It  has  throttled  the  human  heart. 
It  has  atrophied  human  sensibilities.  The  cries 
of  widows  and  orphans  turn  neither  kaiser  nor 
king  from  the  determination  to  kill  as  long  as 
men  and  money  remain. 

Is  it  not  very  probable  that  something  is 
really  desperately  wrong  in  the  past  and  pres- 
ent programme  of  the  Church?  It  is  easy  and 
costless  to  lay  the  blame  upon  others.  It  is  quite 
possible  to  charge  the  impotence  of  the  Church 
to  the  schism  of  others,  and  forget  the  arro- 
gance and  bigotry  that  caused  them  to  seek 


58  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

spiritual  freedom.  It  is  easy  to  lay  the  impu- 
tation of  disloyalty  to  others  who  failed  to  see 
the  truth  as  we  formulated  it,  unmindful  of  the 
fact  that  we  may  have  formulated  theories  in  the 
past  to  which  we  ourselves  would  not  to-day 
subscribe.  It  is  easy  to  blame  those  who  de- 
parted from  confessions  of  faith  and  articles 
of  religion  in  days  long  gone,  forgetful  that 
to-day  these  articles  and  confessions  are  by 
ourselves  side-tracked  or  repudiated.  Shall  we 
repudiate  those  who  rejected  in  other  days  what 
to-day  we  reject?  That  it  is  we  who  reject  the 
articles  and  confessions  to-day  does  not  prove 
that  they  were  any  more  infallibly  true  when 
they  were  by  others  rejected  because  their  con- 
sciences could  not,  in  days  gone  by,  give  to  these 
iron-clad  tests  of  faith  the  assent  of  candid  and 
honest  minds  which  to-day  we  cannot  give. 

Is  it  not  quite  possible  that,  by  magnifying 
at  one  time  the  indispensable  value  of  interpre- 
tations and  theories  afterward  by  us  repudi- 
ated, and  by  insisting  upon  contentions  and 
dogmas  that  to  many  thousands  of  spiritual 


SPIRITUAL  MISSION  OP  THE  CHURCH      59 

men  are  not  regarded  as  essential  to  salvation, 
that  the  Chiircli  has  made  and  is  making  the 
impression  upon  the  world  that  she  has  lost  the 
consciousness  of  her  mission  to  witness  to 
Christ,  and  to  the  simple  faith  and  glorious 
redeeming  love  proclaimed  in  the  simple  mes- 
sage of  His  Gospel?  At  times  the  Church  seems 
panic-stricken.  She  impresses  the  world  with 
the  idea  that  she  has  lost  confidence  in  her- 
self. Around  some  ancient  bulwark  of  logical 
interpretation,  behind  some  fort  of  catholic 
sanction,  she  intrenches  herself.  To  the  world 
she  says.  If  this  falls,  I  fall.  The  world  wonders 
just  why  this  logical  deduction  is  after  all  essen- 
tial to  its  salvation.  It  comes  to  question  the 
truth  of  the  claim  that  this  defended  bulwark 
is  the  critical  salient  which  must  be  held  in  order 
to  enable  the  Church  to  solve  the  problems  aris- 
ing out  of  the  world  crisis. 

Men,  in  larger  numbers  than  ever  before,  are 
gathering  in  their  clubs  and  discussing  the  re- 
lation of  the  Church  to  the  world  crisis.  They 
are  asking  why  is  she  fighting  over  shibboleths? 


60  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

They  are  asking  why  is  the  lack  of  fellowship 
and  co-operation  with  such  stupendous,  vital 
problems  to  be  solved?  They  are  taking  down 
books  which  they  have  not  been  accustomed 
to  read,  and,  as  they  turn  the  pages  which  tell 
of  Bloody  Articles,  and  test  interpretations,  and 
scientific  and  religious  controversies,  and  bap- 
tismal regeneration,  and  predestination,  and 
eternal  punishment,  and  heathen  damnation  con- 
tentions, which  made  heaven  and  earth  lurid 
with  the  fires  of  heated  debates,  the  men  who 
think  are  asking ' ' How  long,  0  Lord,  how  long'* 
will  the  ecclesiastical  mind  persist  in  contending 
for  theories  and  interpretations  which  are  not 
essential  to  salvation,  and  which  keep  men  from 
co-operating  in  this  day  of  the  world's  crisis 
and  of  the  Church's  greatest  opportunity? 

These  questions  are  being  asked.  They  are 
reasonable  questions  and  fair.  The  men  who 
ask  them  are  coming  to  see  that  it  is  rationalism 
and  materialism  which  has  collapsed  in  this 
crisis  of  human  history.  They  are  coming  to 
see,  and  are  b(?ginning  already  to  say  that  the 


SPIEITUAL  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH       61 

Church,  having  failed  to  make  her  witness  to 
the  spiritual  heard  and  heeded  by  men  and  na- 
tions, stands  to-day  before  the  judgment  bar 
of  God  and  of  man.  What  will  she  plead  ?  What 
will  she  confess?    What  will  she  determine? 

One  can  but  wonder  what  the  Master  is  try- 
ing to  say  to  His  Church  to-day.  Unseen  He 
walks  in  our  midst.  He  needs  a  vital,  conse- 
crated Body  through  which  to  express  and  re- 
veal Himself  to  the  world.  He  needs  a  human 
tongue  through  which  to  speak,  and  human 
hands  with  which  to  heal  and  help.  Through 
materialism  He  cannot  speak.  Through  His 
Church  materialised,  He  cannot  speak  to  ma- 
terialism. By  our  failure  to  perceive  and  know 
and  understand,  we  leave  Him  voiceless.  By 
our  divisions  we  leave  Him  almost  impotent 
to  help.  By  our  pride  and  conceit  and  stub- 
bornness, we  leave  Him  filled  with  a  sorrow 
wliich  is  unutterable. 

In  this  time  of  crisis  we  hear  Him  say,  ^'Lo  I 
come.'*  But  can  we  hear  Him  say,  ''A  Body 
hast  thou  prepared  for  me?"    He  needs  a  Body 


62  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

presented  as  a  living  sacrifice  and,  through  sac- 
rifice, made  one  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  He 
needs  the  human  mind  transformed  by  the  re- 
newing of  the  spirit.  He  needs  a  great  human 
heart  consecrated  to  love.  He  needs  a  Body 
which  shall  be  the  living  temple  of  His  living 
spirit.  He  will  make  it  one,  if  it  is  ever  thus 
presented  to  Him. 

It  may  be  that  the  great  world  crisis  will  com- 
pel His  Church  to  bear  its  cross  and  follow 
Him  over  Calvary  to  unity.  When  she  can  say, 
*'I  am  crucified  with  Christ,"  then,  but  not  till 
then,  will  the  world  hear  the  voice  of  Him 
who  is  waiting  and  longing  to  speak  His  mes- 
sage of  peace  and  love  and  power,  that  the 
Father's  children  may  all  be  made  brothers. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS* 

WE  cannot  to-day  do  the  things  that  we 
would.  The  impulses,  the  desires,  even 
the  will  to  serve  stand  almost  impotent  in 
the  presence  of  a  world  catastrophe.  We 
have  organised  and  systematised  the  will  to 
material  gain  and  worldly  power.  The  instru- 
ments of  production,  the  means  for  transporta- 
tion, the  methods  for  transacting  the  work  of 
the  world,  are  unified  and  correlated  and  are 
almost  perfect  in  their  efficiency.  Secular  edu- 
cation has  been  graded  and  made  adaptable  to 
every  need  of  man  save  the  needs  of  the  soul. 
We  have  systematised  our  theology.    Doctrine 

*  This  chapter  was  used  as  a  part  of  an  address  made  to 
the  Laymen's  Missionary  Convention,  in  New  York  City,  April 
10th,  1916. 

63 


64  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

follows  doctrine  in  ordered  and  logical  sequence 
in  our  scholarly  books  on  dogmatics.  Our 
liturgy  is  as  harmonious  and  beautiful  as  a 
poem,  and  our  churches  are,  in  many  instances, 
poems  in  stone. 

For  a  year  and  a  half  the  cry  of  the  world's 
need  has  swept  over  the  ocean  to  America,  and 
we  have  found  no  way  to  make  anything  which 
approaches  or  suggests  an  adequate  response. 
Individuals,  here  and  there,  have  given  gen- 
erously. Individuals,  in  many  instances,  have 
trained  souls.  As  a  people  we  have  done  noth- 
ing and  attempted  nothing.  We  stand  idle  and 
impotent. 

The  impulses  and  desires  of  selfishness  are 
organised.  The  heart  of  our  humanity  is  in  a 
state  of  moral  and  spiritual  chaos.  There  is  no 
voice  which  speaks  with  a  spiritual  authority 
to  the  national  conscience,  and  no  means  have 
been  provided  for  gathering  together  the  latent 
forces  of  unselfishness,  of  generosity,  of  kind- 
ness and  benevolence  which  exist  unorganised 
and  unexpressed  in  the  heart  of  the  American 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   65 

people.  The  masses  are  exploited  by  organised 
selfishness.  The  masses  are,  to  a  great  extent, 
organised  for  selfish  exploitation.  The  masses 
of  our  American  people  are,  however,  to-day 
missing  the  greatest  opportunity  which  ever 
came  to  a  people  of  any  nation  to  be  made 
conscious  of  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of 
human  brotherhood.  The  opportunity  for 
creating  a  sense  of  moral  and  spiritual  soli- 
darity is  offered,  as  it  was  never  before  offered 
to  a  people,  and  so  far  absolutely  nothing  com- 
mensurate with  the  opportunity  has  been  at- 
tempted. 

The  nation  cannot  pass  through  this  crisis 
and,  in  the  end,  be  left  upon  the  moral  plane 
where  she  stood  at  the  beginning  of  the  world 
war.  She  must  of  necessity  either  ascend  or 
descend  morally  and  spiritually.  The  law  to 
which  Bishop  Butler  called  attention,  that  the 
human  mind  and  heart  are  atrophied  and  de- 
based by  feeling  emotions  which  are  unex- 
pressed, is  immutable.  America  is  beginning 
to  get  accustomed  to  the  cry  of  need  and  to  the 


66  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sight  of  appealing  tragedy  to  which  she  makes 
no  adequate  effort  to  respond.  We  are  in  dan- 
ger of  measuring  our  generosity  by  the  num- 
ber of  appeals  we  hear,  and  the  strength  of  the 
emotions  we  have  felt,  rather  than  by  the  sacri- 
fices we  have  actually  made  to  help  the  world's 
great  need.  Unless  the  national  conscience  is 
aroused  to  a  point  that  will  lead  the  national 
will  to  make  a  sacrificial  response,  America  will, 
in  the  end,  have  been  hardened  and  debased  by 
having  viewed  with  irresponsive  selfishness  the 
sorrow  and  need  of  her  suffering  brothers  be- 
yond the  seas. 

The  spectacle  is  pathetic  and  appalling.  It 
is  pathetic  because  it  gives  evidence  of  the  im- 
potence of  the  institutions  and  forces  which 
should  naturally  voice  and  express  and  work 
in  this  crisis  the  will  of  God.  An  unprepared 
Church  stands  in  the  presence  of  a  world  crisis. 
Among  all  her  age-long  systems,  there  is  not 
found  to-day  one  that  is  adequate  for  leader- 
ship, and  for  a  constructive  and  statesmanlike 
programme  of  correlating  and  making  operative 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   67 

the  divine  impulses  in  the  heart  of  the  people. 
It  is  appalling  because  of  the  fact  that  among 
all  the  nations  upon  earth  to-day  America  most 
largely  needs  to  seize  and  make  use  of  the  op- 
portunity to  consolidate  the  moral  and  spiritual 
impulses  of  her  people.  She,  of  all  others,  pre- 
eminently needs  to  create  and  develop  the  forces 
of  a  higher  national  unity.  This  need  is  pre- 
eminently hers  because  of  the  heterogeneous 
and  hyphenated  nature  of  her  population.  From 
every  nation  under  the  sun,  people  have  flocked 
to  her  shores  bringing  with  them  various  im- 
pelling ideals  and  impulses.  Should  the  time 
ever  come  when  the  nation  will  be  called  to  act 
as  a  unit,  there  will  then  be  made  apparent  the 
appalling  tragedy  of  not  having  used  the  op- 
portunity which  these  hours  afford  for  bind- 
ing the  people  into  a  common  purpose  in  a 
united  effort  to  serve  the  needs  of  others.  From 
America's  view-point,  the  success  of  this  effort 
would  not  be  measured  by  the  sums  of  money 
contributed  but  by  the  number  of  those  who,  in 
response  to  a  clear  call,  would  unite  to  serve 


68  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

others.  This  union  of  a  noble  intent,  this  soli- 
darity of  moral  and  spiritual  purpose,  would 
give  to  America  her  most  efficient  and  potent 
preparedness  in  the  event  of  either  peace  or 
war. 

What  doth  it  profit  a  nation  if  it  gains  treas- 
ures from  the  whole  world's  need,  and  in  re- 
sponse to  the  cry  of  the  world's  deepest  need, 
turns  an  irresponsive  ear,  and  listens  with  a 
deadened  soul?  What  will  it  profit  this  nation 
if  it  organises  its  mind  and  its  will  to  gain,  and 
through  a  great  national  indifference,  selfish- 
ness and  impotence,  dies  at  last  of  a  degen- 
erated and  poisoned  heart? 

To-day  the  mind  of  the  nation  is  fixed  upon 
force.  It  is  counting  its  ships,  its  guns,  its 
forts,  and  its  soldiers.  It  is  counting  its  dollars. 
The  nation  is  weighing  itself.  The  nation  needs 
to  do  this.  But  in  this  alone  the  nation  will 
not  find  its  preparedness.  In  these  things,  when 
taken  alone,  are  found  the  seeds  of  a  nation's 
doom.  Unless  a  nation  be  possessed  of  spir- 
itual treasures  worth  saving,  and  worthy  to 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   69 

be  given,  she  cumbers  the  earth,  and  impedes 
the  onward  march  of  God.  Of  such  nations  it 
is  written  in  the  book  of  destiny  that  their  days 
are  numbered  because,  when  weighed  in  the 
balance  of  God's  unrelenting  judgment,  they 
are  found  to  be  lacking  in  the  elements  essential 
to  personal  and  national  permanence. 

The  Christian  Church  stands  to-day  in  the 
presence  of  organised  greed,  covetousness  and 
materialism  in  national  life  made  incoherent 
because  of  its  unorganised  soul,  and  disorgan- 
ised moral  and  spiritual  impulses.  The  Chris- 
tian Church  stands  in  the  presence  of  this 
crisis  herself  disorganised,  and,  in  some  in- 
stances, contentious  over  interpretations,  and 
fighting  over  shibboleths. 

She  claims  to  be  the  Body  of  Christ.  She  is 
His  Body.  But  her  chains  are  not  His.  They 
bind  Him.  They  throttle  Him.  They  make  it 
possible  for  the  world  to  crucify  Him  afresh. 
As  of  old.  His  cross  was  set  up  by  Caesar,  but 
his  chains  were  forged  by  orthodoxy  made  blind 
by  pride  and  prejudice.     Sometimes  it  would 


70  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

seem  that  the  Church  loved  the  chains  forged 
by  its  own  logic  better  than  she  loved  the  Body 
of  His  humiliation  and  sacrifice.  Sometimes 
it  would  seem  that  the  Church  had  become  ob- 
sessed with  the  idea  that  she  was  called  to 
manufacture  unity  by  building  up  a  logical 
system  and  creating  a  form  and  mould  in  which, 
because  of  its  antiquity  and  symmetry,  the 
Spirit  of  unity  must  of  necessity  dwell,  forget- 
ting that  God  has  ever  built  for  Himself  in  the 
world,  and  in  man,  a  Body  as  it  has  pleased 
Him,  when  His  Spirit  was  allowed  to  have  free 
course,  that  He  might  glorify  and  unify  the 
Body  by  working  from  within  the  consecrated 
shrine  of  His  own  chosen  dwelling  place. 

The  crisis  calls  us  to  set  Christ  free.  In  this 
hour  we  should  pray  for  vision  to  discriminate 
very  clearly  between  ecclesiastical  shackles  and 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  His  living  Body.  The 
chains  which  delimit  the  freedom  of  His  Spirit, 
and  make  it  possible  for  the  world  to  crucify 
afresh  its  Lord  of  life,  must  be  stricken  from 
His    body.      The    world    greatly    needs    Him. 


THE  TRAGEDY  OP  UNPREPAREDNESS   71 

America  is  slowly  but  consciously  becoming  en- 
slaved because  to-day  there  is  no  visible  me- 
diator, no  one  to  speak  to  her  conscience,  no  one 
to  gather  her  children  together,  no  one  to  en- 
fold them  in  a  great  saving  pui*pose  to  help  the 
world's  need,  no  one  to  save.  And  yet  invisible 
He  stands  in  His  visible  Church.  Here  to-day, 
as  there  in  the  long  ago,  He  can  do  no  mighty 
works  because  He  is  bound  by  our  unbelief, 
shackled,  as  was  the  Word  of  God  of  old,  by 
our  traditions,  and  chained  by  the  delimiting 
logical  formalism  and  narrow  dogmatism  of 
schools  of  thought  in  Churches  which  seek  to 
atone  for  their  narrowTiess  by  prefixing  to  their 
Christian  name  terms  which  imply  an  exclusive 
orthodoxy. 

The  crisis  calls  us  to  re-examine  the  grounds 
upon  which  this  Church  bases  its  claim  to  ex- 
clusiveness.  It  calls  every  Church  to  look  back 
over  the  path  of  its  past  life  and  note  the  proc- 
esses of  its  departure  from  the  ideal  of  spirit- 
ual and  corporate  unity.  Above  all  things,  the 
crisis  calls  for  sacrifice.    It  pleads  for  unity  in 


72  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

spiritual  purpose  and  in  spiritual  essentials. 
It  points  to  millions  scattered  as  sheep  with- 
out a  shepherd.  It  bids  us  listen  to  the  clank- 
ing chains  of  materialism  by  which  they  are 
being  fast  bound  and  enslaved.  It  asks  if  we 
cannot  voice  the  nation's  need,  the  nation's 
hope,  the  world's  pathetic  cry,  and  call  the  im- 
pulses to  help,  which  lie  latent  in  the  hearts  of 
millions,  into  a  united  purpose,  and  into  a  ra- 
tional expression  of  brotherliness.  It  asks  for 
Christian  co-operation.  America's  peril  pleads 
for  the  inspiration  which  Christian  unity  of 
will  and  purpose  would  to-day  give  to  the  life 
of  the  nation. 

The  Church  has  not  trained  itself  for  such  a 
service  of  giving  as  the  world  is  trained  for  the 
purpose  of  getting.  The  means  through  which 
material  ambition  works  its  will  have  been  cre- 
ated as  a  result  of  a  continuity  of  consciousness 
and  application  with  regard  to  selfish  gain,  and 
with  reference  to  the  relation  of  ambition  to 
things  material.  The  means  for  expressing 
the  soul  have  not  been  created  because  of  the 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   73 

lack  of  continuity  in  our  consciousness  of  our 
divine  and  human  relationships.  The  spirit- 
ual emotions  and  aspirations  have  been  either 
too  exclusively  personal,  or  else  too  evanescent 
to  register  themselves  in  a  deep  and  abiding 
and  constructive  social  and  national  spiritual 
conscience.  The  crisis,  therefore,  finds  us  un- 
prepared. A  sense  of  vague  bewilderment 
dazes  the  mind  as  it  endeavours  to  think  out  a 
way  to  unify  and  express  the  benevolent  dispo- 
sition and  latent  emotions  which  lie  unexpressed 
in  the  heart  of  the  masses  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. A  feeling  of  hesitancy  shackles  the  will  to 
serve.  The  mind  is  dominated  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  our  moral  and  spiritual  unprepared- 
ness.  As  a  nation  we  are  in  grave  danger  of 
failing  to  do  anything  which  will  represent  the 
national  conscience  because  we  fear  that  a  great 
nation-wide  endeavour  could  not  be  adequately 
voiced  and  expressed.  It  were,  however,  bet- 
ter for  the  nation  to  fail  in  a  great  spiritual 
undertaking,  than  to  succeed  in  doing  the  small 
service  which  will  result  from  the  contribu- 


74  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

tions  made  by  a  limited  number  of  individuals 
who  happen  to  be  touched  by  special  and  spas- 
modic appeals.  Though  these  gifts  may  be  gen- 
erous, and  in  some  instances  munificent,  they 
do  not  represent  the  masses  of  the  people,  nor 
do  they  express  the  national  consciousness,  nor 
do  they  register  the  response  of  the  national 
conscience. 

The  crisis  imperatively  demands  that  we  en- 
deavour, through  a  great  sacrifice  and  conse- 
cration, to  give  to  the  Christ  a  voice  through 
His  Church  that  shall  call  the  masses  of  our 
people  into  a  unity  of  service  to  help  supply 
the  need  of  to-day  and  the  greater  needs  which 
will  voice  themselves  on  the  morrow. 

If  objection  is  made  that  gifts  could  not  be 
made  by  America  during  the  war  to  nations 
in  need  without  releasing  money  in  these  na- 
tions for  the  uses  of  war;  if  it  be  objected 
that  the  distribution  now,  or  during  the  war,  of 
a  national  fund  would  arouse  contention  and 
animosity;  then  the  crisis  of  to-day  could  be 
used  as  the  inspiration  of  a  national  endeavour 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   75 

to  raise  now  and  during  the  progress  of  the 
war  a  fund  for  helping  to  reconstruct  and  re- 
habilitate the  people  who  will  need  many  mil- 
lions when  the  war  is  done  to  enable  them  to 
tie  together  again  the  broken  cords  of  personal 
and  national  life. 

A  political  platform  is,  in  a  few  weeks,  im- 
pelled into  the  consciousness  of  the  American 
people.  An  appeal  for  armament  preparedness 
is  voiced  through  various  and  divergent  institu- 
tions to  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  nation.  The 
appeal  of  God,  which  is  the  appeal  of  human 
need  to  the  human  heart,  finds  everything  or- 
ganised save  the  means  to  make  that  appeal 
heard,  and  to  gather  into  one  the  willingness 
to  help.  The  opportunity  to  unify  the  heart  of 
the  nation's  life  through  a  great  endeavour  to 
serve  the  world's  need,  the  opportunity  to  unify 
the  higher,  the  deeper  consciousness  of  civic 
and  national  responsibility  is  the  crisis  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Christian  Church. 

In  every  city,  in  every  hamlet  in  America, 
those  who   know   and   love   the  merciful   and 


76  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

compassionate  Christ  should  unite  in  some  way 
to  give  voice  to  the  heart  of  love  and  pity  which 
to-day  weeps  over  the  tragedy  of  the  world. 

This  endeavour  might  be  launched  by  the 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  and  com- 
mended by  them  to  the  Federated  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America  and  extended  to  other  organi- 
sations outside  the  Christian  Church,  or  it 
might  be  started  by  the  action  of  the  General 
Convention  or  Assembly  or  Conference  of  some 
branch  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  co-opera- 
tion asked  from  other  branches  of  the  Church. 

The  promise  of  Christ  that  the  gates  of  hell 
should  not  prevail  against  His  Church,  implied 
a  promise  that  His  Church  should  some  day  pre- 
vail against  the  gates  of  hell.  The  Church, 
however,  which  in  her  pride  boasts  '  *  I  am  rich 
and  have  need  of  nothing"  may  hear  the  Mas- 
ter say, ' '  Thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest  and 
art  dead;  strengthen  the  things  which  remain, 
that  are  ready  to  die."  ** Remember  whence 
thou  art  fallen,  and  repent,  and  do  thy  first 
works;  or  else  I  will  come  unto  thee  quickly, 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   77 

and  will  remove  thy  candlestick  out  of  its  place, 
except  thou  repent.'* 

The  god  of  this  world,  and  the  God  of  Love, 
both  are  saying  to  America  to-day,  ''Behold  I 
have  set  before  thee  an  open  door."  Through 
the  door  opened  by  the  god  of  this  world,  the 
trains  of  commerce  are  rushing  laden  with  mu- 
nitions of  war,  and  returning  laden  with  gold. 
Through  it,  the  organised  forces  of  material- 
ism are  passing  in  serried  ranks  with  their  eyes 
fixed  on  the  golden  gain  which  lures  them  on. 

Through  the  door  opened  by  the  God  of  Love 
comes  the  cry  of  millions  in  need.  By  this  open 
door  stands  the  divided,  shackled  Church,  dis- 
cussing ancient  claims,  contending  for  the  right 
of  precedence  in  the  procession  to  minister  to 
fast  dying  men,  disputing  as  to  the  vestments 
to  be  worn  in  the  funeral  obsequies  of  nations, 
and  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  souls,  passing 
into  the  invisible  beyond,  are  to  be  given  the 
Bread  of  Life  and  the  assurance  of  forgive- 
ness. 

It  is  time  for  the  procession  to  pass  through 


78  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  open  door  bearing  the  garnered  gifts  of  mil- 
lions in  the  slavery  to  selfishness  to  millions  in 
need  of  medicine  and  daily  bread.  It  will  be 
time  to  stop  longer  and  discuss  the  claims  of 
the  succession  when  the  procession  shall  have 
returned  from  its  mission  through  the  open 
door  to  help  bind  up  the  bruised  and  bleeding 
heart  of  the  nations. 

Millions  of  our  Father's  children,  naked  and 
cold,  sick  and  hungry,  and  dying  faster  than 
men  have  ever  died  before,  stretch  out  to  Amer- 
ica appealing  hands.  Shall  America  make  a 
national  response?  The  nations,  when  the  war 
is  done,  and  a  calmer  judgment  prevails,  will 
recognise  that  comparatively  few  institutions 
and  individuals  in  this  country  have  made  large 
profits  from  the  war.  They  will  perceive,  what 
will  doubtless  be  apparent,  that  as  a  nation  our 
economic  loss  has  been  far  greater  than  our 
economic  gain.  If  in  that  day  of  judgment, 
when  great  hatreds  and  bitter  resentments  shall 
tend  to  pervert  the  judgment  of  the  nations,  it 
shall  be  recognised  that,  while  individuals  in 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  UNPREPAREDNESS   79 

America  have  in  many  instances  grown  rich 
by  reason  of  this  world  tragedy,  that,  neverthe- 
less, the  American  people,  in  response  to  a  na- 
tion-wide appeal,  have  shown  a  disposition  to 
be  brotherly  and  compassionate,  then  the  judg- 
ment against  the  nation  will  be  one  of  which 
we  will  not  be  ashamed.  It  will  be  a  judgment 
like  that  held  of  America  to-day  in  China  as 
a  result  of  the  return  of  the  Boxer  indemnity 
fund. 

This  is  the  open  door  of  opportunity  set  be- 
fore the  Church  and  the  nation.  What  response 
will  the  Christian  Church  make?  What  capac- 
ity of  leadership  will  she  show?  What  sacri- 
fices will  she  be  willing  to  endure  ? 

What  will  be  the  attitude  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  this  co-operative  endeavour?  The 
value  of  *  *  the  succession, ' '  which  many  empha- 
sise as  essential  and  restrictive,  will  be  meas- 
ured by  many,  if  not  by  the  Master,  by  the 
place  it  takes  in  the  procession  through  the  door 
opened  by  this  crisis  in  the  history  of  the 
world  and  in  the  life  of  the  Church  of  God. 


PART  II 

ECCLESIASTICISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY 
FORM  AND  SPIRIT 

*'TJie  Body  without  the  Spirit  is  dead.*' 

"And  they  took  Jesus  and  hound  Him." 

"Though  we  he  tied  and  hound  with  the  chain 
of  our  sins,  yet  let  the  pitifulness  of  thy  great 
mercy  loose  us;  for  the  honour  of  Jesus  Christ." 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  PURPOSE  PREVIEWED 

THROUGH  the  pages  following,  some  of  the 
processes  of  mind  which  have  contributed 
to  make  the  Christian  Church  unprepared  to 
meet  the  crisis,  and  make  use  of  her  greatest 
opportunity,  will  be  considered.  The  Church 
once  for  all  time  founded  by  the  Christ,  has 
become  divided  and  encrusted  and  made  incom- 
petent for  her  world  mission.  She  must  of  ne- 
cessity face  the  task  of  readjustment  and  of 
reconstruction.  She  must  be  led  to  a  new  and 
higher  point  of  view.  She  must  follow  her 
Master  up  to  the  mount  of  transfiguration,  and 
talk  with  Him  of  the  decease  which  she  must 
accomplish  on  Calvary,  if  she  would  rise  to  the 
glory  of  communicating  His  resurrection  life 

83 


84  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  power  to  the  world,  which,  through  Him 
alone,  can  be  saved. 

She  must  examine  the  measure  of  her  empha- 
sis, and  ask  if  it  has  always  been  placed  upon 
things  vital  and  essential.  She  must  consider, 
in  view  of  the  call  which  comes  to  her  through 
the  open  door,  the  grounds  and  claims  which 
prevent  co-operative  endeavour,  and  withhold 
Christian  communions  from  applying  the  po- 
tency of  a  vital  common  faith  to  the  moral  dis- 
orders of  the  world  with  a  corporate  solidarity 
of  high  moral  and  spiritual  purpose.  She 
would  do  well  to  remeasure  and  resurvey  the 
bounds  of  her  comprehensiveness,  and  ques- 
tion as  to  the  extent  of  her  inclusiveness  of 
the  purpose  of  God  within  the  bounds  of  her 
exclusive  claims.  After  all  it  is  a  question  of 
balance,  and  of  emphasis,  and  of  a  right  judg- 
ment in  all  things.  Before  all  is  the  necessity 
for  prayer  and  penitence. 

We  have  made  mistakes.  We  have  trusted 
the  logic  of  our  delimited  minds,  and  have 
leaned  too  often  upon  the  knowledge  that  puf- 


THE  PURPOSE  PREVIEWED  85 

feth  up  and  produces  pride  and  arrogance, 
rather  than  upon  the  love  that  buildeth  up  the 
Body  of  Christ.  We  have  relied  upon  the  arm 
of  flesh,  and  trusted  in  things  material.  "We 
have  gendered  controversies  by  the  vain  en- 
deavour to  dictate  exactly  how  intellectual  be- 
lief should  accept  the  mystical  union  between 
the  invisible  Spirit  and  the  form  of  its  mani- 
festation in  Holy  Baptism,  in  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, in  Biblical  inspiration,  and  Orders,  and 
in  the  mystery  of  the  Divine  Incarnation  and 
Resurrection.  In  every  instance  it  has  been  the 
material,  the  human,  the  visible  side,  of  the  mys- 
tery that  has  mastered  and  perverted  the  mind. 
In  every  instance  through  theological  and  ec- 
clesiastical controversy,  intellectual  belief  in 
theories  of  interpretation  has  sought  to  sup- 
plant and  usurp  the  place  of  simple  faith  which 
unites  the  personal  soul  of  man  with  the  per- 
sonal Christ. 

During  the  centuries  through  which  she  has 
passed,  the  Church  has  built  barriers  which  have 
separated  Christians  from  godly  union  and  con- 


86  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

cord.  We  live  behind  them.  We  cannot  see 
each  other.  We  do  not  understand  each  other. 
We  distrust  each  other. 

The  world  crisis  calls  us.  We  refuse  to 
march  together  because  of  questions  of  prece- 
dence. We  decline  to  co-operate  because  of  a 
certain  distrust  in  our  position,  because  of  a 
fear  that  a  thing  we  claim  as  divine  will  be  com- 
promised by  association  with  those  who,  in 
ways  other  than  those  we  cherish,  are  follow- 
ing Christ,  and  serving  the  world  in  the  power 
and  witness  of  His  Spirit.  Ecclesiasticism 
must  not  be  allowed  to  enchain  the  Christ. 

In  what  shall  be  said,  the  purpose  will  always 
be  to  do  respect  to  every  honest  conviction,  and 
to  recognise  the  sincerity  of  mind  and  heart  of 
every  seeker  after  truth.  The  saintliness  of 
character  seen  in  men  of  many  and  varied 
schools  of  thought,  and  in  the  various  com- 
munions of  the  Church,  gives  evidence  of  a  pres- 
ence and  power  which  is  divine,  which  tran- 
scends the  limits  of  logical  barriers  and  ec- 
clesiastical exclusiveness,  and  justifies  the  plea 


THE  PURPOSE  PREVIEWED  87 

whicli  is  made  in  the  chapters  which  follow  for 
a  review  of  positions  arrived  at  by  the  logical 
process,  and  for  an  inclusive  and  comprehensive 
Church,  and  for  a  co-operation  of  Christian 
people  for  upbuilding  the  spiritual  order  of  the 
world. 

The  conviction  is  cherished  that  the  divine  or- 
der of  the  Church  will  not  suffer  from  a  co- 
operative endeavour  to  correct  and  cure  the 
moral  disorder  of  the  world.  Wliere  Christ 
calls  through  the  thousand-voiced  needs  of  a 
world  prostrate,  impotent,  dying  in  darkness, 
and  crushed  beneath  the  weight  of  collapsed 
materialism,  we  cannot  suffer  loss  of  anything 
essential  to  faith  and  order  if  we  follow  Him, 
in  the  company  of  others  who  also  hear  and 
make  answer  to  His  call  and  command  to  go 
teach  the  nations  and  baptise  them  with  power 
that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  may  become 
the  Kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ. 

As  we  note  the  confusion  and  discord,  and 
consider  the  unhappy  divisions  which  have  re- 


88  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

suited  from  the  effort  to  bound  the  compre- 
hensiveness of  faith,  and  the  inclusiveness  of 
the  Church  by  the  use  of  reason  and  the  proc- 
esses of  logic;  as  we  note  the  results  of  seek- 
ing to  fix  the  limits  of  God's  covenanted  mer- 
cies by  the  conclusions  of  the  finite  mind ;  it  be- 
comes apparent  that  serious  errors  have  been 
made  which  need  to  be  corrected.  The  necessity 
for  considering  the  relation  between  ecclesiasti- 
cism  and  Christianity  becomes  also  apparent. 
And  in  view  of  our  failure  to  find  a  way  to  vis- 
ible organic  unity  by  the  use  of  the  methods 
which  have  been  pursued,  the  question  arises: 
may  it  not  be  wise  for  the  Church  to  begin  to 
place  the  major  emphasis  upon  the  spirit,  rather 
than  upon  the  form,  of  unity,  and  seek  to  find 
and  make  use  of  the  approaches  to  unity  which 
start  from  the  open  door  to  closer  fellowship, 
a  better  understanding,  and  a  deeper  sympathy? 
May  it  not  be  that  the  spirit  of  unity  will  come 
to  live  in  us  more  largely,  and  build  up  the  Body 
into  visible  organic  unity  in  a  way  that  shall 
please  Him,  if  we  begin  to  walk  more  closely 


THE  PURPOSE  PREVIEWED  89 

with  others  who  follow  Him  in  the  effort  to  es- 
tablish and  extend  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  rule  and  guidance  of 
the  Spirit  of  Life  and  Love  and  Unity? 


CHAPTER  VIII 
LOGIC  AND  CATHOLICITY 

HUMAN  logic  has  proven  a  poor  prop  to 
the  catholicity  of  the  Church  of  God.  It 
has  been  the  chief  instrument  in  promoting  sec- 
tarianism and  schism.  By  its  aid,  every  propo- 
sition and  dogma  that  has  been  set  forth  has 
been  established  to  the  satisfaction  of  those 
who  stood  sponsors  for  it.  By  it,  definitions, 
inadequate  to  comprehend  the  truth,  have  been 
put  forth,  and  the  scope  of  truth  and  of  divine 
life,  in  its  expression  and  revelation,  have  been 
delimited.  By  it,  God  has  been  reasoned  into 
tribal  limits,  and  then,  by  the  tribe,  has  been 
reasoned  into  the  confines  of  the  sect,  then, 
by  the  sect.  He  has  been  reasoned  out  of  the 
covenant  relationship  with  the  rest  of  mankind. 

90 


LOGIC  AND  CATHOLICITY  91 

Logical  bulwarks  have  ever  been  the  defence  of 
bigotry,  exclusiveness  and  narrow  sectarianism. 
Men  have  ever  been  prone  to  forget  that,  as 
temples  made  with  hands  cannot  contain  Him, 
even  so  can  He  not  be  contained  in,  and  cir- 
cumscribed by,  definitions  and  dogmas,  or  by 
the   terms   of   ecclesiastical   polity.     He   ever 
overflows  the  channels  which  men  survey,  map 
out,  charter  and  proclaim  as  exclusive  means 
through  which  the  divine  life  is  to  be  communi- 
cated.    Beyond  our  fullest  and  most  compre- 
hensive thought,  there  is  ever  an  unexpressed 
fulness  of  God.    The  Eternal  One  has  persist- 
ently refused  to  be  confined  within  the  dogmas, 
terms  and  systems  which,  through  the  logical 
process,  men  have  decreed  in  order  to  circum- 
scribe His  Grace,  and  through  which  they  have 
sought  to  appropriate  to  themselves  an  exclu- 
sive claim  to  His  special  and  covenanted  mer- 
cies.   Into  the  open  heart  of  humanity,  through 
the  open  door  of  personal  faith,  His  life  has 
ever  come,  according  to  His  own  will  and  cove- 
nanted promise,  and  in  coming  has  made  those 


92  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

who  received  His  Spirit  partakers  of  His  di- 
vine nature. 

The  Church  may  some  day  break  away  from 
the  narrow  confines  of  its  logical  and  delimited 
catholicity,  and  become  sufficiently  inclusive  to 
embrace  all  those  who  are  embraced  in  the  Body 
of  Christ  through  the  baptism  of  incorporation 
into  His  life,  and  who,  through  His  spirit,  re- 
veal His  living  and  abiding  presence. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  INTENTION  AND  EXTENSION  OF 
THE   CHURCH 

WHILE,  with  a  zeal  that  has  not  always 
been  attended  with  reverence  and  hu- 
mility, but  which  has  often  been  attended  by 
arrogance  and  the  self-sufficiency  of  a  vast  ig- 
norance, the  Church  has  often  in  its  past  history 
applied  false  logic  to  forge  binding  fetters  and 
restraints  upon  the  liberties  of  the  souls  of 
men,  she  has  all  too  frequently  failed  to  ob- 
serve the  very  fundamental  principles  of  logic 
itself. 

While  the  logical  process  may,  and  frequently 
does,  lead  to  false  conclusions  by  reason  of  the 
finite  and  incomplete,  and  therefore  inadequate 
conceptions   of   God,   and   of   spiritual   truth, 

93 


94  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

which  are  stated  in  the  premises,  yet,  the  great 
fundamental  principles  of  logic  are  essentially 
true,  and  when  violated  in  the  thought-processes 
of  men,  the  expression  of  truth  becomes  of  ne- 
cessity inadequate  and  incomplete.  The  claims 
made  of  catholicity  are  frequently  seen  to  have 
been  vitiated  and  overthrown  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that,  even  while  endeavouring  to  establish 
certain  contentions,  by  what  seemed  to  be  a  sure 
logical  process,  the  fundamental  principles  and 
abiding  maxims  of  logic  were  overlooked ;  which 
has  resulted  in  the  fact  that  the  logical  conclu- 
sions reached  stand  contradicted,  in  the  claim 
they  make,  by  the  logical  principles  and  funda- 
mental maxims  of  truth  which  have  been  vio- 
lated or  unobserved  during  the  reasoning  and 
constructive  process.  Thus  the  constructive 
process  proves  destructive  to  the  very  cath- 
olic claims  which  they  sought  to  estab- 
lish. 

The  law  of  thought  that  **the  minimum  of 
intension  is  the  maximum  of  extension,  while 
on  the  other  hand,  the  minimum  of  extension 


INTENTION  AND  EXTENSION  95 

is  the  maximum  of  intension/'*  furnishes  an 
example  and  illustration  of  what  happens  when 
the  logical  process  is  used  to  prove  the  fact 
that  a  certain  superadded  ecclesiastical  dogma, 
or  theory,  is  of  divine  authority,  or  of  ancient 
and  universal  sanction,  and  must,  therefore,  be 
received  as  an  essential  note  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  or  be  accepted  as  a  necessary  article 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  or  be  assented  to  as  a 
condition  precedent  to  loyal  membership  in  the 
Catholic  Church. 

These  superimposed  dogmas,  ceremonies  and 
decrees  add  to  the  intensive  notes  of  the 
Church ;  they,  however,  limit  the  extensive  hold 
of  the  Church  upon  the  thought  and  faith  of 
men.  It  was  just  this  that  the  Christ  charged  the 
Jews  with  having  done.  '*Ye  have  made  the 
Commandments  of  God  of  none  effect  by  your 
traditions,  teaching  as  the  doctrines  of  God  the 
commandments  of  men."  (St.  Mat.  xv,  6,  9.) 
Having  identified  these  intensive  notes,  which 
had  been  added  and  made  binding  by  tradition, 

•  ' '  Theory  of  Thought, ' '  Noah  K.  Davis,  p.  36. 


96  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

with  the  law  and  revelation  of  Grod,  their  church 
became  so  delimited  in  their  own  conception  of 
it  that  it  was  not  extensive  enough  to  embrace 
Christ  and  His  apostles,  or  to  comprehend,  or 
include,  their  teaching,  and  they  accused  Him 
of  being  a  heretic  and  crucified  Him,  and  per- 
secuted and  killed,  as  they  could,  His  followers. 
This  was  the  charge  made  by  the  continental 
and  English  reformers  against  the  Church  of 
Rome.  It  was  pointed  out  that,  by  her  decrees 
and  superadded  doctrines  and  ceremonies, 
Rome  had  made  the  Church  more  and  more  in- 
tensive ;  that  is,  its  notes,  and  distinctive  attri- 
butes had  been  increased.  It  was  doubtless 
reasoned  that  these  notes  would  enrich  the  life 
of  the  Church  and  increase  its  power.  It  was 
doubtless  reasoned,  also,  that  each  new  doctrine 
added  could  either  be  proven  from  the  teaching 
of  the  Scriptures  and  the  ancient  Fathers,  or 
else  it  was  logically  reasoned  that  their  author- 
ity, as  universally  binding,  rested  upon  the  logi- 
cally proven  right  of  infallible  popes  and  in- 
fallible councils  to  decree  dogmas  to  be  held 


INTENTION  AND  EXTENSION  97 

essential,  which  to  deny  would  be  heresy,  and 
which  to  repudiate  would  be  schism. 

The  Church  failed  to  foresee  that  the  thought 
of  subsequent  generations  might  not  be  of  a 
nature  to  be  included  within  the  reach  of  the 
Church  whose  extensive  catholicity  was  gradu- 
ally being  delimited  by  each  superadded  dogma, 
established  as  true,  or  judged  expedient,  by  the 
logical  working  of  the   ecclesiastic  mind.     It 
failed  to  perceive  that  the  liberated  mind  would 
be  more  extensive  than  the  Church,  which  they 
were  making  by  each  dogma  more  intensive,  and 
thus  less  and  less  extensive  in  its  scope  and 
inclusive  capacity.     The  time,  however,  came 
when  others  saw  it. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM 

THE  syllogism,  as  it  represents  the  reason- 
ing process,  and  when  it  is  used  for  the 
purpose  of  formulating  and  expressing  divine 
truth,  should  be  conceived  in  reverence  and  born 
in  humility;  for,  as  Samual  Coleridge  says: 
"there  is  small  chance  of  truth  at  the  goal 
where  there  is  not  childlike  humility  at  the 
starting  post."*  About  the  syllogism  there 
should  ever  be  the  consciousness  of  the  finite- 
ness  of  human  thought.  It  should  breathe  the 
atmosphere  of  God's  transcendent  life  when 
stating  the  fact  of  His  immanence.  It  should 
beware  of  conclusions  which  set  limitations 
upon   God,   and   should   ever   doubt  both   the 

*"Aids  to  Reflection,"  p,  182. 
98 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM      99 

wisdom  and  truth  of  a  reasoning  process  which 
ends  with  binding  Christ  and  the  Eternal  Spirit 
to  conform  to,  and  be  restrained  by,  the  conclu- 
sions at  which  human  reason  arrives.  Before 
the  conclusion  is  sent  on  its  journey  to  meet  the 
problems  of  life  and  to  help  guide  the  pilgrim- 
seeker  after  truth;  before  it  is  sanctioned  by 
authority,  and  incorporated  into  the  system  of 
vital  truth,  it  should  look  with  far-reaching  vi- 
sion down  the  long  vistas  of  time.  It  should  ask 
the  far  future  very  earnest  questions.  It  should 
ask: —  Will  I  be  needed  then?  Will  I,  who 
seem  to  state  the  truth  to-day,  fetter  the  truth 
seeker  of  to-morrow?  Am  I  too  exclusive!  In 
the  fresh  exultation  of  youth,  am  I  too  arrogant 
of  what  was  reverenced  as  the  venerated  faith 
of  the  years  long  gone,  the  truth  which  car- 
ried many  burdens,  and  which,  though  now 
worn  with  age,  was  the  guide  and  help  of  saints 
departed?  These  questions  the  truth  seeker,  the 
truth  formulator,  should  ask  himself.  With 
this  atmosphere  of  reverence,  humility,  forbear- 
ance, and  wide  horizon,  the  syllogism  would 


100  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

more  largely  aid  the  pilgrims  of  the  night, 
and  do  better  service  to  the  Church  of 
Christ. 

One  wonders,  one  cannot  be  very  sure,  if 
much  that  has  been  done  and  said  with  the  claim 
of  infallible  authority  would  be  done  and  said 
to-day  if  it  was  not  for  the  sanctions  and  conten- 
tions of  the  past.  One  wonders  if  the  doctrine 
of  Transubstantiation,  or  of  Consubstantiation, 
or  any  doctrine  which  vainly  undertook  to  tell 
in  human  words  just  how  the  Eternal  Christ  is 
present  in  the  Eucharist,  and  just  how  He 
worked  His  will,  and  communicated  His  pres- 
ence, would  be  formulated  and  sanctioned  to- 
day by  a  general  council  of  the  Church,  if  there 
were  no  previous  pronouncement  on  the  subject 
save  the  simple  words  of  the  Master  Himself. 
Because,  after  all,  men  cannot  know.  They  feel 
and  know  His  presence  in  sacraments,  and  in 
the  written  and  spoken  words  of  truth,  and  in 
the  lives  of  those  in  whom  His  Spirit  is  incar- 
nate, but  the  past  has  taught  us  that  the  mys- 
tery of  God  in  His  relation  to  the  soul  is  too 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  THE  SYLLOGISM     101 

great  to  be  adequately,  and,  therefore,  ulti- 
mately expressed  in  human  definitions  and 
dogmas. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    REFORMATION   A   DISTINCTLY 
CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

THE  term  'Hhe  Catholic  Church/^  as  it  oc- 
curs in  this  discussion,  is  used  in  the 
comprehensive  sense  which  makes  it  co-exten- 
sive with  the  whole  number  of  those  baptised 
into  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy- 
Ghost,  and  who  hold  the  faith,  revealed  in  the 
great  Gospel  of  Redemption,  as  epitomised  in 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  as  essential  to  salvation.  It 
was  for  this  comprehensive  interpretation  that 
the  English  reformers  contended.  They  sought 
to  abolish  the  superimposed  intensive  notes  and 
attributes,  namely,  the  superadded  doctrines 
and  practices  which  had  so  delimited  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Church  that  it  could  no  longer 

102 


REFORMATION  A  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT     103 

hold  within  itself  the  enlightened  mind,  and 
spiritual  faith,  and  liberated  thought  of  many 
thousands.  To  the  ages  past,  the  English  Fa- 
thers said : —  Ye  have  made  the  catholic  claim 
and  the  catholic  inclusiveness  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  void  by  your  traditions  and  dogmas.  In 
seeking  through  the  process  of  intension,  and 
with  logical  justification  of  reasoning,  to  enrich 
and  empower  the  organisation,  you  have  so  de- 
limited its  catholicity  that  we  find  ourselves 
bound  to  protest  against  the  acts  of  man  that 
have  proven  contrary  to  the  spiritual  compre- 
hensiveness of  His  Body,  the  Church.  The  re- 
formers, in  so  far  as  they  were  protesting 
against  the  errors,  or  the  ill-advised  work  of 
man,  were  asserting  and  defending  the  catholic 
conception  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  If,  there- 
fore, to-day  any  component  part  of  the  Church 
has  the  historic  and  logical  claim  to  any  right 
to  use,  as  descriptive  of  its  position,  the  term 
*' catholic,"  it  is  surely  those  who,  in  sympathy 
with  the  reformers,  are  still  protestant  against 
the  erroneous  practices,  dogmas  and  traditions 


104  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  the  Church  of  Rome.  If  these  erroneous 
positions  were  still  made  binding  in  this  Church, 
as  they  are  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  would 
invalidate  her  catholic  claim  by  making  this 
Church  so  largely  intensive  and  so  narrowly 
extensive  that  many  who  profess  and  call  them- 
selves Christians,  and  who  give  the  witness  of 
the  indwelling  presence  of  the  Spirit,  would  be 
excluded  from  the  pale  of  her  inclusiveness, 
and  be  left  with  the  assurance  and  witness  of  a 
vital  faith  and  a  spiritual  incorporation  with 
Christ,  outside  the  comprehensiveness  of  what 
would  then  be  a  misnamed  *'Holy  Catholic 
Church.'' 


CHAPTER  Xn 
CAN  THE  CHURCH  BE  DEFINED? 

THE  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  state 
certain  principles;  to  challenge  serious 
thought,  and  to  ask  certain  practical  and  perti- 
nent questions  which  need  to  be  squarely  and 
fearlessly  faced.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  try 
to  answer  all  the  questions  raised.  The  answers 
to  many  of  them  may  yet  be  far  removed.  It 
is  at  least  worth  something  to  see  that  the  an- 
swers now  given  and  commonly  current  are 
either  wholly  or  partly  wrong,  and,  therefore, 
unsatisfactory  and  untenable. 

A  definition  of  the  Church  that  is  adequate 
and  satisfactory  and  generally  approved  has 
never  been  formulated.  The  truth  of  this  as- 
sertion is  self-evident.     A  definition  is  given 

105 


106  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

in  the  19th  Article  of  Religion.  It  is  the  only 
one  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  there 
is  none  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Church,  nor 
is  there  one  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  or  in  the 
literature  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Church 
is  in  many  places  described.  It  is  spoken  of  as 
''the  Body  of  Christ,"  as  being  ''one,  catholic 
and  apostolic. "  It  is  called  in  the  shorter  creed, 
"the  holy  Catholic  Church."  It  is  spoken  of 
in  the  New  Testament  under  a  variety  of  de- 
scriptive terms  such  as  "the  household  of  God," 
an  army,  a  body,  etc. 

None  of  these  descriptions  and  designations 
constitutes  in  any  sense  a  definition.  Indeed, 
each  term  in  the  description  and  designation 
has  been  subject  to  varied  definitions.  Into 
these  definitions  are  invariably  inserted  the 
theories  of  the  definers,  and  as  long  as  theories 
differ  and  are  insisted  upon,  the  possibility  of 
an  adequate  and  satisfactory  definition  of  the 
Church  seems  far  removed,  if  not  quite  impos- 
sible. Take,  for  instance,  the  definition  in  the 
19th  Article  of  Religion.    "The  visible  Church 


CAN  THE  CHURCH  BE  DEFINED  ?      107 

of  Christ  is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men,  in 
which  the  pure  Word  of  God  is  preached,  and 
the  sacraments  be  duly  ministered  according 
to  Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that  of 
necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same." 

Left  to  each  man's  private  interpretation,  this 
definition  would  doubtless  be  generally  accepted 
as  sufficiently  adequate  and  comprehensive. 
Under  these  conditions,  if  they  could  ever  ob- 
tain, Romanist  and  Protestant  could  both  accept 
it,  as  could  the  catholic  churchman,  be  he  Roman 
or  Protestant  catholic  in  his  teachings  and  con- 
victions. 

But  once  begin  to  define  the  terms  in  this  or 
any  other  definition  of  the  Church,  and  insist 
upon  the  acceptance  of  the  term  definition,  and 
the  whole  ecclesiastical  controversy  of  the  ages 
is  opened  again.  How  many  sacraments  must 
be  duly  ministered?  When  and  by  whom  are 
they  duly  ministered?  Did  Christ's  ordinance 
confine  their  administration  to  the  ministry  of 
the  apostolic  succession,  as  the  expression  is 
generally  defined  by  many  in  this  Church?  How 


108  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

can  this  be  proven  without  question  of  doubt? 
Does  the  restriction,  if  allowed,  apply  to  both 
sacraments  alike?  If  not,  why  not?  If  so,  then 
why  did  the  General  Convention  declare  that  all 
who  were  baptised  into  the  name  of  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  were  thereby  incorporated 
into  the  Holy  Catholic  Church?  What  then  are 
all  those  things  ''that  of  necessity  are  requi- 
site"? Some  will  answer :  "A  ministry  in  the 
line  of  the  apostolic  succession."  Others  will 
ask :    *  *  Why  then  did  not  the  definition  say  so  ?  " 

To  define  the  Church  is  evidently  impossible. 
Yet  current,  as  well  as  historic  ecclesiastical 
controversies,  practically  all  spring  from  a  fail- 
ure to  agree  upon  a  definition,  or  from  the  in- 
sistence that  a  party  definition  shall  be  accepted 
by  everybody,  which,  of  course,  is  quite  impos- 
sible. 

The  perfect  senselessness  of  raising  and  con- 
tinuing contentions  which  are  based  upon  what 
should  be  by  this  time  recognised  as  the  abso- 
lute impossibility  of  a  common  definition, 
should  be  apparent  to  all  men  who  think. 


CAN  THi5  CHURCH  BE  DEFINED  ?      109 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Church  visible  to- 
day is  in  reality  neither  one,  catholic,  nor  apos- 
tolic. Its  oneness  has  been  broken  by  schism. 
Its  catholicity  has  been  delimited  by  exclusive 
claims,  and  its  apostolic  nature  has  been  viti- 
ated in  large  measure  by  the  spirit  of  each  age 
through  which  its  course  has  run,  and  by  the 
age  in  which  it  now  exists.  Were  the  Church 
not  of  divine  origin,  and  did  it  not  live  by  a 
divine  life  present  within,  it  would  long  since 
have  perished  from  the  face  of  the  earth;  for 
it  has  ever  been  treated  much  as  men  treated 
the  despised,  rejected,  crucified,  and  yet  ever- 
living  Lord. 

If  we  cannot  agree  even  among  ourselves 
upon  any  adequate  definition  of  the  Church  ac- 
tual and  visible,  then  why  should  we  continue  to 
speak  and  act  as  though  a  definition  either  suf- 
ficiently inclusive  or  sufficiently  exclusive  had 
been  determined  upon? 

Would  it  not,  in  the  plain  light  of  facts  and 
conditions  as  they  exist,  be  far  better  if  we 
agreed  not  to  attempt  to  define  the  Church  un- 


110  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

til  it  had  become  in  reality  what  it  was  planned 
and  intended  to  be  by  the  Christ  Himself?  Is 
it  not  just  because  the  Church  actual  is  not 
the  Church  ideal  that  we  cannot  define  it?  To 
define  it  as  it  is,  would  be  to  deny  it  as  He 
purposed  it  to  become. 

It  is  very  difficult,  if  not  quite  impossible, 
accurately  and  adequately  to  define  a  vital  or- 
ganism in  the  process  of  becoming  that  which 
it  is  destined  to  be.  That  the  Church  is  des- 
tined to  be  one,  lioly,  catholic  and  apostolic 
is  a  proposition  concerning  which  we  are 
all  in  thorough  agreement.  That  it  is  any  of 
these  now,  he  invites  denial  who  ventures  to 
assert. 

Therefore,  to  delimit  the  Church,  in  its  inclu- 
siveness,  and  exclude  from  its  nurture  and  ad- 
monition those  who  do  not  conform  to  a  stand- 
ard which  does  not  exist  would  seem  to  be  as 
unwise  and  untenable  a  procedure  as  it  would 
be  to  say  that  we  cannot  now  be  found  in  Christ 
because  we  are  not  yet  found  to  be  perfect  even 
as  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  CHURCH  UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE 
TITLE 

WHILE  the  Church  cannot  be  adequately 
defined,  it  can  be  described  in  terms 
sufficiently  definite,  and  adequately  comprehen- 
sive to  furnish  the  mind  with  a  concept  and 
ideal  inclusive  of  the  faith  and  spiritual  experi- 
ence of  man  in  his  relation  to  God  the  Father, 
God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  descriptive  statement  suggested  by  Christ 
when,  breaking  the  bread.  He  gave  it  to  His 
disciples  saying,  *^This  is  my  Body,"  and  that 
used  by  St.  Paul,  who  frequently  describes  the 
Church  as  **the  Body  of  Christ,"  present  the 
Church  as  a  living  organism.  This  concept 
is  practical,  definite,  vital,  inclusive,  progres- 

Ui 


112  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sive,  and  deeply  spiritual.  It  is  individual  and 
corporate;  concrete,  and  yet  mystical  in  its 
conclusiveness.  It  offers  what  would  seem  to 
be  the  promise  of  a  definition  of  the  Church 
Catholic  that  would  be  adequate,  inclusive  and 
scriptural.  This  we  will  not,  however,  attempt 
to  formulate. 


CHBIST   THE   HEAD 

This  concept  of  the  Church  definitely  recog- 
nises Christ  as  the  Head  of  the  Body.  His 
mind,  His  heart,  His  will,  through  His  indwel- 
ling and  over-ruling  Spirit,  vitalise,  direct,  and 
empower  the  living  organism. 

The  Body,  the  Church,  is  built  up  primarily 
from  within.  What  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  calls  the 
divine  background  of  phenomena,  what  the 
Bible  calls  the  creative  will  of  God,  what  the 
Prayer  Book  calls  the  prevenient  and  co-opera- 
tive power  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  builds  the 
Body  of  Christ,  His  Church.  It  is  the  outward 
and  visible  result  of  God  working  in  us,  both  to 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE         113 

will  and  to  do  His  good  pleasure.  It  is  the 
self-revelation,  the  self-expression  of  the  ever- 
outflowing  and  incoming  life  of  God,  the  Self- 
incarnation  of  the  divine  Spirit  in  humanity, 
which  builds  up  what  St.  Paul  calls  the  Body 
of  Christ. 


THE    IMMEDIATE    APPROACH 

The  Christ,  through  His  Spirit,  speaks  di- 
rectly to  the  souls  of  men.  Prior  to  the  exist- 
ence of  any  ministerial  order,  or  written  revela- 
tion, or  sacramental  institution,  the  voice  of 
God  spoke  to  the  souls  of  men;  '*Be  still  and 
know  that  I  am  God.**  The  silence  has  ever 
been  a  vital  medium  through  which  the  Divine 
has  entered  into  the  inner  shrine  of  human  life. 
There  the  soul  has  ever  heard  the  whispering 
voice  of  the  nearby  God.  There  at  the  unseen 
altar,  human  sacrifice  of  the  costliest  kind  has 
ever  been  offered,  as  man  has  made  response 
to  the  inner  voice  which  said ; ' '  My  son,  give  me 
thine  heart."     There  has  been  no  record  in- 


114  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

scribed  to  tell  of  the  deep  devotion  and  reverent 
offering  of  humanity  in  silent  consecration  be- 
fore these  unseen  altars  of  the  soul.  Like  Nico- 
demus,  thousands  come  to  Him  by  night.  We 
cannot  count  them  yet.  We  cannot  discount 
them.  We  may  hope  and  believe  that  in  the 
shadowless  land  of  closer  communion  and 
deeper  understanding,  they  will  be  made  mani- 
fest in  Him  who  has  manifested  Himself  to 
them. 

The  Christ  needs  their  outward  confession 
of  faith,  and  it  would  seem  that  He  had  these 
mystical  souls  in  mind  when  He  constituted 
His  Church.  The  sacraments  of  incorporation 
and  of  sustenance  and  unity,  ordained  by  Him, 
were  very  elemental,  very  simple,  and  very 
mystical.  In  her  after  growth  the  visible 
Church  may  not  have  been  as  mindful  as  she 
might  of  the  sensitive,  delicate  outreaching  of 
these  souls  of  the  inner  shrine.  She  may  have 
unwittingly  scared  them  back  into  their  secret 
reserve  as  they  looked  out  and  listened  for  a 
way  to  build  themselves  into  His  visible  Body. 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE        115 

Her  array  of  confessions,  ringing  with  the  clash 
of  minds;  her  ordinances  made  coldly  formal, 
or  too  glowingly  and  fervently  ritualistic;  her 
channels  of  grace,  which  are  His  Channels  of 
grace,  proclaimed  with  a  logical  claim  of  exclu- 
siveness  which  seemed  to  contradict  their  own 
souls'  experience  of  an  immediate  relationship 
with  God,  have  tended  to  make  them  doubtful 
and  timorous,  and  so  they  have  continued  to 
worship  at  the  inner  shrine.  Yet,  every  shrine 
where  God  meets  and  illumines  a  soul  of  man 
sends  forth  some  light  which,  gleaming  through 
the  windows  of  human  character,  reveals  the 
presence  of  Him  who  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world. 


THE    MEDIATE   APPROACH 

Christ  the  Head  of  the  Church  ordained  cer- 
tain means  through  which  the  life  which  was 
in  Him  might  be  infused  into  His  Body,  the 
Church ;  and  by  which  the  Body  might  be  built 
up  into  unity  with  Him  and  within  itself,  and 


116  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

be  enabled  thus  to  reveal  and  express  the  ful- 
ness of  the  divine  life. 


THE  MINISTRY  AND  THE  SACRAMENTS 

One  of  the  mediate  means  of  the  divine  com- 
munication is  the  ministry  of  the  Church.  '  *  The 
Christ,"  writes  St.  Paul  (Ephesians  iv),  **hath 
given  some,  apostles ;  some,  prophets ;  and  some, 
evangelists;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers; 
unto  the  perfecting  of  the  saints  for  the  doing 
of  service,  for  the  building  up  of  the  body  of 
Christ;  till  we  all  come  unto  the  unity  of  the 
faith,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  complete  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ." 

The  unity  of  which  the  apostle  here  speaks 
is  primarily  and  distinctly  spiritual.  He,  how- 
ever, foresees  that  this  unity  may  be  destroyed 
by  the  independent  working  of  the  natural 
mind,  and,  therefore,  urges  the  close  union  of 
the  Body  with  Christ,  its  living  and  governing 
Head,  through  faith  and  spiritual  knowledge 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE         117 

*'that  we  be  not  tossed  like  a  wave,  and  carried 
about  by  every  wind  of  teaching  by  the  artifice 
of  men  in  cunning  craftiness,  according  to 
wily  error."  (Marginal  reading,  ** Methodical 
Fraud.") 

The  chief  function  of  the  ministry  is  the 
building  up  of  the  Body  in  love.  The  unity  of 
the  Church  is  a  result  to  be  obtained  through 
the  inner  working  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  and 
through  His  Body.  Prior  to  all  thought  of 
unity  of  form,  St.  Paul  urges  the  necessity  for 
''endeavouring  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  spirit 
in  the  bond  of  peace"  by  living  in  obedience  to 
the  calling  of  Christ  Jesus  ''with  all  lowliness 
and  meekness,  with  long  suffering,  bearing  with 
one  another  in  love. ' ' 

There  is  ample  evidence  open  to  the  student 
of  Church  history  to  show  that  before  the 
Church  had  gone  many  centuries  on  its  pilgrim- 
age, it  came  under  the  influence  of  forces  which 
had  their  rise  not  in  the  mind  of  Christ,  the 
Head  of  the  Body,  but  in  the  mind  which  had 
been  impressed  by  the  force  of  external  author- 


118  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ity,  and  dominated  by  the  conception  of  the 
strength  and  grandeur  of  formal  unity,  resting 
upon  the  authority  of  external  decrees,  and 
made  binding  by  the  power  of  inflicting  penal- 
ties for  the  suppression  of  the  spirit  of  schism. 
The  unity  of  the  Roman  empire  moulded  the 
conception  of  the  unity  of  the  Church.  The 
Church  and  the  state  together  came  to  see  the 
mutual  advantages  which  would  follow  from  a 
material  and  spiritual  alliance.  We  find  em- 
perors calling  general  councils  at  a  time  when 
this  one  voice  reached  further  than  could  the 
voice  of  any  one  bishop  in  its  power  to  com- 
mand. Later  we  find  that  the  balance  of  power 
has  shifted,  and  the  highly  organised  Church 
calls  emperors  and  bids  them  lay  their  crowns 
at  the  feet  of  him  who  has  grown,  by  assent,  to 
be  chief  bishop,  to  receive  their  crowns  again 
at  his  hand,  to  be  worn  during  the  pope 's  good 
pleasure. 

Thus  there  grew  in  the  Church  a  monarchical, 
an  autocratic  conception  of  orders  and  of 
Church  government.    The  bishop  became  a  prel- 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE         119 

ate;  the  pope,  the  lord  of  lords  and  king  of 
kings. 

The  historic  succession  of  orders,  essential 
under  any  system  to  maintain  the  continuity  of 
the  outward  and  visible  Church,  and  to  pre- 
serve its  outward  unity,  and  to  give  integrity 
and  force  to  its  witness  to  the  truth,  became,  un- 
der this  monarchical  system,  autocratic  and  un- 
relenting in  its  claims  and  in  its  imperious  de- 
mands. The  idea  of  the  apostolic  succession 
was  insisted  upon  as  constituting  the  divine 
right  of  bishops  to  rule,  not  only  over  the  peo- 
ple, but  over  kings  and  emperors  also.  It  was 
the  chief  defence  of  the  doctrine  of  the  two 
swords.  It  brooked  no  opposition.  A  further 
study  of  Church  history  gives  evidence  that 
those  who  most  vigorously  asserted  this  claim 
to  the  exclusive  succession  were  more  mindful 
of  preserving  and  establishing  the  claim  to  au- 
thority than  of  perpetuating  the  succession  of 
apostolic  graces  and  virtues,  and  the  continued 
flow  of  spiritual  life  and  power  through  the 
unbroken  channel.     Indeed,   instances   are  in 


120  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

evidence,  all  down  the  course  of  Churcli  his- 
tory, where  the  appearance  of  grace  and  vir- 
tue and  spiritual  liberty  in  those  who  ven- 
tured to  question  the  decrees  and  interpreta- 
tions of  those  who  ruled  with  the  claim  of  a  di- 
vinely given  right,  through  the  unbroken  suc- 
cession, were  pronounced  heretic,  and  cut  off 
from  union  with  the  Church,  whose  formal  unity 
they  threatened  to  disrupt  by  the  assertion  of 
any  spiritual  truth  which  was  contrary  to  the 
autocratic  decree  sanctioned  by  the  claim  of  the 
unbroken  right,  through  succession,  to  exclusive 
authority.  The  power  to  enforce  the  claim  lay 
not  in  the  power  to  prove  that  truth,  as  well  as 
the  right  to  proclaim  truth,  had  been  divinely 
guaranteed  through  the  succession,  but  in  the 
power  of  the  Inquisition,  in  the  force  of  the 
sword,  in  the  power  of  keys  with  which  heaven 
and  hell  could  be  unlocked,  and  open  the  way  to 
the  eternal  enforcement  of  the  results  of  obe- 
dience to  the  authority  perpetuated  through  the 
succession. 
Since  the  Inquisition  has  vanished,  and  the 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE         121 

power  of  the  sword  has  been  removed,  since  the 
fires  of  persecution  have  been  quenched,  and 
the  power  of  the  pope  over  purgatory  has  lost 
its  terror,  it  has  been  found  that  the  claim  to 
the  right  of  an  exclusive  authority  to  bind  men 
to  Christ,  or  to  the  devil,  by  reason  of  the 
right  of  succession,  is  no  longer  held  by  all  men, 
at  all  times  and  everywhere.  Indeed,  it  is 
very  questionable  if  it  ever  was  held  to  this 
extent. 

It  would  be  well  for  those  branches  of  the 
Church  Catholic  who  still  maintain,  not  alone 
the  fact  of  the  historic  succession,  but  also,  the 
exclusive  claims  of  the  apostolic  succession,  as  it 
relates  to  authority,  to  pause  and  ask  just  how 
much  of  this  claim  rests  upon  scriptural  and 
spiritual  grounds,  and  how  much  is  an  historic 
survival  of  claims  made  and  maintained  in  the 
struggle  of  the  Church  to  secure  material  power 
and  temporal  sway  over  every  other  form  of  au- 
thority whatsoever. 

It  were  well  to  do  this  for  more  reasons  than 
one.    The  divine  right  to  exclusiveness  of  power 


122  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  authority  is  being  seriously  questioned  all 
over  the  world  at  the  present  time.  Men  are 
asking  that  those  who  make  the  claim  show 
their  credentials.  A  tree,  they  say,  is  known  by 
its  fruits.  What  are  the  fruits  of  this  system! 
The  autocratic,  the  aristocratic  system  is  be- 
ing challenged  as  never  before.  Democracy  is 
asking  autocracy  to  give  proof  of  its  exclusive 
right  to  make  absolute  decrees  which  restrain 
the  liberties  of  the  people.  The  question  as  it  af- 
fects the  future  of  empires  is  closely  akin  to  the 
question  as  it  affects  the  Church.  It  is  authority 
versus  liberty.  The  ancient  system,  bulwarked 
by  ancient  claims,  and  supported  by  ancient  the- 
ories and  interpretations,  such  as  hereditary  de- 
scent, and  the  divine  right,  is  to-day  face  to  face 
with  a  new  theory  of  government,  a  new  inter- 
pretation, and  a  somewhat  more  comprehensive 
idea  of  divine  rights.  Among  them  is  the  right 
which  men  are  asserting  to  be  free.  The  power 
of  the  monarch,  of  the  autocracy,  is  the  force 
which  it  commands.  The  people  pay  the  bills  and 
canvass  the  results.  They  may  admit  the  divine 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE         123 

right  as  long  as  it  does  not  lay  upon  them  bur- 
dens too  grievous  to  be  borne.  They  pay  the 
bills  as  long  as  they  do  not  feel  the  weight  of 
oppression.  They  remain  subservient  as  long 
as  they  feel  that  their  liberties  are  not  threat- 
ened. When,  however,  the  system  grows  too 
iron  clad,  and  rights  become  exclusive,  and  the 
guns  which  the  system  commands  with  supreme 
authority  are  in  danger  of  being  used  to  make 
the  people  more  subservient,  then  new  concep- 
tions of  the  divine  rights  spring  into  being. 
The  man  and  the  gun  come  into  conflict.  In 
the  state  it  is  called  revolution.  In  the  Church 
it  is  called  reformation  or  reconstruction.  The 
question  as  to  which  will  triumph  in  the  end  is 
not  hard  to  answer.  The  only  question  that 
is  hard  to  answer  is,  when  will  the  end  come? 
The  gun  is  dead.  The  man  lives.  The  man 
may  live  to  make  other  guns,  but  if  used  against 
the  divine  rights  of  the  people,  they,  too,  will  be 
overthrown  in  due  time. 

And  yet,  it  is  evident  that  the  two  concepts 
are  not  necessarily  contradictory.     Authority 


124  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  liberty  are  not  only  not  exclusive  and  antag- 
onistic terms — they  are  mutually  dependent  the 
one  upon  the  other.  Like  the  conservative  and 
radical  elements  in  government,  and  in  society, 
they  are  both  essential  to  the  security  of  the 
state,  and  of  the  Church.  Authority  which  over- 
rides personal  liberty  results  in  despotism.  Lib- 
erty, undirected  and  unrestrained  by  authority, 
results  in  license  and  lawlessness.  The  individual 
and  the  state,  the  churchman  and  the  Church, 
owe  mutual  obligations  the  one  to  the  other. 
Their  interests  are  ultimately  identical.  The 
problem  in  state  and  Church  is  to  find  and  es- 
tablish the  right  balance  of  power,  namely,  to 
secure  authority  without  arrogance,  and  lib- 
erty without  license.  The  objection  against 
autocratic  prelacy  cannot  be  rightly  charged 
against  a  system  of  Church  government  by 
bishops ;  nor  are  the  objections  against  individ- 
ualism a  valid  argument  for  an  autocratic  epis- 
copate. The  exclusive  claims  of  the  priesthood, 
entrenched  behind  the  logical  and  ecclesiastical 
claims  of  an  apostolic  succession  of  authority, 


UNDER  A  DESCRIPTIVE  TITLE         125 

are  not  the  only  alternative  to  lawlessness  and 
absolute  individualism  in  the  Church.  There  is 
the  central  ground  position  which  will  be  stated 
and  considered  later  on. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  TRAXSITION 

THE  past  and  the  future  are  both  calling  to 
the  present.  The  call  comes  as  a  chal- 
lenge. Old  things  are  passing  away.  But  they 
are  passing  before  the  present.  And  as  they 
pass  they  are  asking: —  Am  I  worth  while? 
It  is  a  motley  throng  which  we  are  called  to  re- 
view. The  ancient  priest  approaches,  vested 
with  the  insignia  of  authority.  He  holds  the 
jewelled  chalice  in  one  hand  and  the  scroll  bear- 
ing the  record  of  his  unbroken  priestly  ances- 
try in  the  other.  He  pauses  to  tell  us  of  time- 
worn  cathedrals  where  he  has  served,  of  an- 
cient chants  gloriously  sung,  of  processions 
gorgeously  robed  passing  with  solemn  tread 
through  long-drawn  aisles,  and  pausing  before 

126 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  TRANSITION     127 

the  altar  high  and  lifted  up,  crowned  with  the 
cross,  and  aglow  with  candles.  Do  we  need  him? 
Shall  we  strip  him  of  his  jewelled  stole  and 
sacerdotal  garb?  Shall  we  take  from  him  his 
golden  chalice,  and  the  roll  of  his  priestly  de- 
scent? Shall  we  hush  the  ancient  music  which 
echoes  in  his  soul!  Shall  we  turn  the  proces- 
sion, in  which  he  is  wont  to  walk,  and  make  it 
stop  at  the  pulpit,  or  at  least  at  the  lectern,  but 
forbid  it  passing  in  ritualistic  reverence  to  the 
altar?  Shall  we  hurt  him  by  cribbing  his  cross, 
or  leave  him  there  in  the  darkness  without  any 
candles  ? 

The  prophet  passes !  His  garb  is  simple.  He 
walks  as  one  conscious  of  mission.  He  holds 
in  his  hand  the  Book  which  the  priest  had  in 
his  pocket.  He  has  a  far  wistful  look  in  his 
piercing  eyes.  He  stops  to  tell  us  of  his  task, 
of  his  heart's  desire,  and  of  his  hope.  He  is  a 
man  of  visions  unfulfilled.  He  speaks  as  one 
filled  with  a  spirit  of  a  noble  discontent.  He  is 
impatient  of  restraint.  He  tells  of  temples 
closed  to  him,  and  of  limitations  imposed  upon 


128  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  message  of  righteousness  which  burns  with- 
in his  soul  by  reason  of  the  decrees  set  up  to 
defend  the  imperilled  truth  of  centuries  long 
gone.  He  is  a  man  of  prayer.  He  bears  in  his 
body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Do  we  need 
him?    Shall  we  set  him  free? 

Next  comes  the  monk.  He  is  garbed  in  black 
and  girded  about  the  waist.  A  gleaming  cross 
is  pendant  on  his  breast.  In  his  hand  is  his 
ancient  book  of  devotion.  He  pauses  to  tell  us 
of  the  vision  seen  in  his  cell.  It  came  to  him 
while  he  knelt  in  prayer  after  having  fasted 
long.  The  glow  of  the  vision  is  upon  his  face, 
made  thin  by  long  abstinence.  He  has  come 
forth  because  he  has  heard  the  cry  of  the  world's 
great  need,  and  he  has  come  to  serve.  Do  we 
need  him?  Shall  we  demand  that  he  divest  him- 
self of  that  with  which  his  order  has  vested 
him?  Shall  we  forbid  him  the  solitude  of  his 
cell?  Shall  we  obliterate  his  personality,  and 
send  him  forth  to  try  to  minister  as  some  one 
other  than  the  man  he  is? 

Then  there  passes  the  non-conformist  minis- 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  TRANSITION    129 

ter.  He  is  an  aged  man.  He  reminds  us  of  the 
parson  of  Goldsmith's  ''Deserted  Village."  We 
ask  his  name.  We  turn  to  our  Church  Year 
Book,  but  it  is  not  there.  His  credentials  bear 
no  mitred  symbol  of  authority.  We  look  at 
him.  askance,  for,  as  the  Jews  had  no  dealings 
with  the  Samaritans,  we  may  confer  by  the  way- 
side upon  terms  of  courtesy  with  him,  but  dare 
we  co-operate?  Is  he  of  the  Church!  Some 
one  whispers :  "No,  his  orders  are  not  valid." 
Another  cries  out:  ''He  is  a  sectarian!"  The 
pilgrim  wonders  why  he  is  the  cause  of  all  this 
tumult  and  contention.  He  has  not  asked  to 
be  admitted  into  the  Church  any  further  than 
he  considers  himself  admitted  already.  Seeing 
that  he  is  about  to  be  unchurched,  he  bows  and 

passes  on. 

He  is  followed  by  several  men  in  the  garb  of 
rustics.  They  are  kind  and  simple  folk  who 
have  come,  following  the  parson  on  his  pilgrim- 
age. As  they  speak  of  him,  there  is  a  ring  of 
conviction  in  their  voices,  and  a  tone  of  deep 
sincerity,  and  of  honest  pride.    ''What,"  they 


130  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ask,  *4s  this  we  heard  as  we  stood  near,  of  our 
pastor  not  having  the  apostolic  succession,  and 
not  being  able  to  administer  to  us  the  Supper 
of  the  Lord!  He  is  the  apostle  of  the  Lord 
through  all  the  mountains  and  valleys  where  we 
live,  and  is  loved  by  all  for  his  exceeding  good- 
ness. He  knows  the  Scriptures,  and  from  them 
preaches  Christ,  and  many  has  he  led  to  receive 
Him  as  their  Saviour.  He  has  baptised  well- 
nigh  all  the  folk  in  the  mountains.  Through  all 
kinds  of  weather,  he  goes  about  visiting  the 
poor,  and  pointing  the  way  to  brighter  worlds  to 
those  who  are  sick  unto  death.  And,  stranger, 
when  the  old  man  kneels  down  in  homes  where 
sorrow  has  come,  and  prays,  you  feel  the  very 
presence  of  God,  and  heaven  comes  down,  and 
we  seem  to  see  the  open  door  through  which 
our  loved  ones  have  passed  on  into  the  light. 
Many  a  boy  in  the  mountains,  that  was  bringing 
naught  but  sorrow  home,  has  he  gone  after 
and  brought  to  Christ.  Men  who  once  spent 
their  time  fighting  and  drinking  moonshine, 
and  turning  their  homes  into  hell,  have  been 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  TRANSITION     131 

converted  under  his  preaching,  and  changed 
their  ways,  so  that  now  you  would  hardly  know 
the  country  if  you  had  known  it  as  it  was  be- 
fore he  came.  To  see  these  men  kneeling  on 
Sunday  taking  the  sacred  sacrament  would  set 
your  heart  aglow  with  gladness,  and  many  a 
woman  turns  away  from  the  table  of  the  Lord, 
and  walks  down  the  aisle  with  her  man  by  her 
side,  with  tears  of  joy  streaming  down  her  face. 
Stranger,  it  is  like  the  parable  of  the  prodigal 
son  just  being  acted  out  up  there  in  the  moun- 
tains with  our  pastor  going  out  all  the  time 
bringing  the  wanderers  home.  You  say  your 
church  does  not  call  him  a  minister  in  good  and 
regular  standing?  "Where  lies  the  fault  with 
him?  He  serves  the  Master  as  His  minister, 
and  is  honoured  by  Him.  He  has  the  tokens  of 
his  Master's  acceptance  of  his  work.  He  has  re- 
ceived the  Spirit,  and  speaks  and  lives  with  His 
power.  "Why  do  you  call  him  your  opponent,  a 
heretic  and  schismatic?  It  didn't  seem  to  mat- 
ter much  with  him,  but  it  hurts  us,  because  all 
these  years  he  has  been  our  friend,  our  guide 


132  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  comforter,  and  the  only  minister  in  the 
mountains. ' ' 

The  time  and  the  audience  seem  not  propi- 
tious for  a  defence  of  the  historic  grounds  upon 
which  rest  the  exclusive  claims  of  the  Church. 
The  men  follow  their  pastor,  and  will  probably 
continue  to  follow  him  through  the  gates  of 
Paradise. 

They  leave  us  thinking,  and  again  we  ask : — 
**Do  we  need  him?  Who  are  we,  anyway?" 
"Guardians,"  it  is  said,  *'and  custodians  of  a 
sacred  trust."  And  what  is  this  trust?  ''The 
Church,"  we  reply.  "Whose  Church?"  it  is 
asked,  and  we  answer,  "The  Church  of  Christ, 
the  divinely  constituted  repository  of  sacred  or- 
ders and  of  sacred  sacraments  and  of  the  Holy 
Bible  and  the  ancient  creeds."  Well,  whose 
fault  is  it  then  that  the  man  dismissed  with 
courteous  firmness,  or  with  the  brand  of  schis- 
matic and  heretic,  is  on  the  outside,  and  not  of 
"the  Church"?  Is  it  the  result  of  an  inade- 
quate definition?  Are  we  sure  that  we  have 
defined  "the  Church"  in  terms  sufiiciently  com- 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  TRANSITION     133 

prehensive  when  we  liave,  by  our  definition, 
excluded  him?  Are  we  sure  that  the  definition 
which  excludes  us  from  co-operation  with  the 
minister  of  irregular  orders  is  of  divine  sanc- 
tion? Or  is  it  upon  historic  grounds  that  we 
leave  him  without  the  pale  of  the  strictly  bound- 
ed One,  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church?  We 
should  be  very  sure.  The  procession  is  fast 
passing  on.  We  must  choose  those  who  may  be 
counted  worthy  to  be  numbered  with  us  in  what 
we  call  ''the  Catholic  Church."  Later  we  will 
return  to  the  priest,  the  prophet,  the  monk  and 
the  minister. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  TERMS  ''CATHOLIC*  AND  ''CATHO- 
LIC SANCTION" 

MUCH  confusion  of  thought  results  from 
the  use  of  the  term  "catholic"  in  didac- 
tic discourses  and  controversial  writings,  by 
reason  of  the  fact  that  the  term  is  not  defined 
by  those  who  use  it.  This  results  in  misun- 
derstanding, and  in  confusion  of  thought. 
There  seems  to  be  no  generally  accepted  stand- 
ard as  to  what  constitutes  the  authority  by 
which  catholic  sanction  may  be  said  to  exist  for 
teachings  and  practices  which  are  current 
among  us,  and  which  are  defended  by  their 
adherents  on  the  ground  that  they  are  teach- 
ings and  practices  of  unquestioned  catholic 
sanction  and  authority. 

134 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  135 

We  are  mindful  of  the  answer  made  by  a 
teacher  to  a  dull  scholar  that  he  could  give 
to  the  scholar  a  reason  for  a  thing,  but  that  he 
could  not  give  him  an  understanding.  We  are 
also  mindful  that  it  was  for  an  understanding 
heart  and  mind  that  Solomon  prayed. 

It  would  be  for  the  good  of  the  Church  if 
some  understanding  could  be  reached  as  to  the 
meaning  and  significance  of  the  terms  used 
among  us.  It  would  minister  to  clearness  of 
thought,  and  would  tend  to  remove  a  good  deal 
of  mutual  misunderstanding  which  now  results 
from  the  use  of  undefined  terms. 

The  laymen  of  the  Church  must,  at  times,  be 
very  much  confused,  and  find  it  very  hard  to 
know  just  what  to  think  and  just  what  to  be- 
lieve. It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  when  the 
priests  of  the  Church  use  language  which  fails 
entirely  to  convey  to  one  clergyman  of  the 
Church  the  concept  that  is  in  the  mind  of  an- 
other. It  is  surely  a  waste  of  time  and  energy 
and  thought  to  engage  in  endless  controver- 
sies, and  then  come  to  find  that  we  were  talk- 


136  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ing  about  entirely  different  things,  or  about 
two  separate  and  distinct  aspects  of  the  same 
thing.  Perhaps  there  is  no  word  current  among 
us  which  gives  rise  to  more  misunderstanding 
and  confusion  of  thought  than  this  word  ' '  Cath- 
olic.'» 

Certain  practices  and  teachings  are  set  forth 
and  defended  by  individuals  and  parties  in  the 
Church  as  being  of  catholic  sanction.  When 
asked  by  what  sanction  they  have  been  made 
catholic,  answers  become  confused,  or  many 
become  confused  to  whom  the  answers  are 
given.  We  are  told  that  they  are  sanctioned  by 
the  Catholic  Councils,  but  there  is  no  one  to  tell 
us  with  final  authority  which  are  * '  the  Catholic 
Councils."  The  Orthodox  Eastern  Church,  the 
Roman  Church,  and  the  Anglican  Communion 
are  not  in  agreement  upon  this  point.  We 
look  among  the  decrees  of  the  Councils,  extend- 
ing from  325  to  the  seventh  council  held  in  787, 
and  fail  to  find  the  catholic  sanction  claimed  for 
certain  theories,  interpretations  and  practices. 
Then  we  are  told  the  name  of  the  council  giving 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  137 

sanction  to  the  doctrine  or  teaching,  and  find  it 
was  a  national  or  provincial  council,  or  else  the 
authority  of  one  of  the  several  Roman  Catholic 
Councils,  which  claim  to  be  general.  It  natu- 
rally becomes  somewhat  hard  to  determine  what 
kinds  of  councils  were  capable  of  giving  catholic 
sanction  to  doctrines  and  practices. 

Or,  if  perchance  we  are  cited  to  the  ancient 
Fathers  and  turn  to  them,  we  either  find  the 
point  in  question  not  mentioned  among  them,  or 
else  find  conflicting  testimonies.  And  when 
asked  which  are  the  catholic  fathers,  there 
seems  to  be,  at  times,  a  disposition  to  answer 
that  the  catholic  fathers  are  the  fathers  who 
held  the  truth  which  we  hold. 

When  the  National  Councils  of  the  English 
Church  met  in  order  that  the  English  Church 
Fathers  might  express  their  desire  to  make  the 
Church  more  truly  catholic  as  they  interpreted 
catholicity,  by  repudiating  the  superadded 
notes,  dogmas  and  teachings  which  they  held 
to  have  been  imposed  upon  the  Church  without 
catholic  sanction,  according  to  the  old  rule  of 


138  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

what  constituted  catholic  sanction,  they  cast 
aside  and  repudiated  many  of  these  superadded 
intensive  notes  so  as  to  make  the  Church  more 
truly  extensive,  and  thus,  in  their  judgment, 
more  truly  catholic. 

Against  these  superadded  practices  and 
teachings,  the  English  Church  protested  on  the 
ground  that  they  had,  without  sufficient  author- 
ity, been  fostered  upon  the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints.  ''The  Church,"  they  said,  ''as 
the  witness  and  keeper  of  Holy  Writ,  ought  not 
to  decree  anything  against  the  same,  so,  besides 
the  same,  ought  it  not  to  enforce  anything  to 
be  believed  for  necessity  of  salvation." 

Many  teachings  and  practices  current  among 
us  would  seem  not  to  have  what  the  national 
Church  Councils  of  England  regarded  as  cath- 
olic sanction,  and  they  lack  the  consent  and 
authorisation  of  the  National  Branch  of  the 
Church  in  America  where  they  are  introduced 
and  advocated. 

It  is  not  questioned  at  this  point  as  to  whether 
or  not  these  things,  claimed  to  be  of  catholic  au- 


*•  CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  139 

thority,  are  edifying  to  the  Church.  The  teach- 
ings and  practices  in  question  may  be  defensible 
on  this  ground,  and  on  this  ground  they  might 
be  defended  by  those  who  so  believe.  It  might, 
perhaps,  be  shown  that  they  minister  to  rever- 
ence, and  that  they  enhance  the  spirit  of  devo- 
tion, and  that  they  should,  therefore,  receive 
the  sanction  of  the  National  Council  of  this 
Church  in  America.  This  would  be  a  perfectly 
justifiable  method  of  procedure,  and  if  it  was 
not  insisted  that  these  doctrines  and  practices 
should  be  made  binding  upon  the  faith  and  prac- 
tice of  the  whole  Church,  the  advocates  seek- 
ing permission  to  hold  and  follow  them  might 
win  many  adherents.  But,  when  a  vague  claim 
is  made  that  they  are  of  catholic  authority, 
and  of  unquestionable  catholic  sanction,  and 
when  it  is  advocated  with  the  expressed  or  im- 
plied insinuation  or  implication  that  those  who 
do  not  believe  and  conform  to  them  are  untrue 
to  the  catholic  heritage  of  the  Church,  then, 
those  against  whom  such  aspersions  are  made 
surely  have  the  right  to  ask  that  the  terms 


140  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

"catholic,"  and  "catholic  sanction,"  and  "cath- 
olic authority, ' '  be  more  clearly  and  adequately 
defined. 

The  student  of  psychology  can  quite  well  un- 
derstand, and  fully  appreciate,  how  and  why 
many  of  these  teachings  and  ceremonial  rites 
should  commend  themselves  to  certain  types  of 
mind,  and  find  a  devotional  response  in  certain 
types  of  human  nature.  From  this  point  of 
view,  it  can  be  quite  well  understood  why  the 
advocates  of  these  views  and  practices  should 
firmly  believe  that  they  are  advocating  what 
they  believe  to  be  principles  which  are  catholic 
in  their  nature  and  intent.  This,  however,  is 
another  question  from  the  claim  of  a  catholic 
sanction  by  any  expressed  catholic  authority. 

In  view,  therefore,  of  the  confusion  resulting 
from  the  constant  use  of  undefined  terminology, 
would  it  not  be  conducive  to  clearness  of 
thought  and  to  a  better  understanding,  if  those 
who  used  the  terms  "catholic,"  "catholic  sanc- 
tion," "catholic  authority,"  and  "Catholic 
Church"  took  the  pains,  and  did  others  the 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  141 

service,  to  define  the  terms  in  order  that  lan- 
guage might  be  the  means  of  communicating 
intelligible  ideas  and  definite  concepts,  and  not 
produce  confusion  of  thought,  out  of  which 
constantly  arise  endless  and  useless  contro- 
versies ? 

To  illustrate  the  point  in  question  as  to  the 
accepted  meaning  of  the  term  'Hhe  Catholic 
Church,"  it  would  be  well  to  define  and  explain 
just  what  is  meant. 

Is  the  term  used  to  describe  the  Body  of 
Christ,  inclusive  of  all  those  who  have  been  bap- 
tised into  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost  ?  There  are  those  who  thus  use  the  word 
to  describe  the  organisation  as  to  its  mem- 
bership. 

As  to  the  Faith:  It  may,  however,  be  said 
that  this  membership  must  of  necessity  accept 
Holy  Writ  as  being  the  inspired  revelation  of 
the  word  of  God,  as  a  prerequisite  to  the  right 
of  membership.  This  contention  would  be  ad- 
mitted without  controversy. 

It  may  be  further  said  that  this  membership 


142  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

must  also  accept  the  faith  expressed  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed.  As  this  faith  is  summed  up  in 
the  baptismal  service,  and  in  the  catechism  of 
this  Church,  it  is  accepted  now  by  practically 
the  whole  membership  of  those  who  profess  and 
call  themselves  Christians. 

The  Sacraments:  It  may  be  further  insisted 
that  this  membership  must  of  necessity  be  con- 
stituted through  incorporation  in  the  Body  of 
Christ  through  baptism.  This  is  universally 
accepted  by  all  who  are  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Beyond  this  point,  what  shall  be  said  and 
held,  and  what  is  held  by  those  who  use  the 
term?  The  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is 
surely  a  catholic  institution.  It  is  almost  uni- 
versally held  among  Christians.  By  some  its 
validity  is  made  to  depend  absolutely  upon  the 
regularity  of  the  ministry  celebrating  in  the 
service.  Vast  numbers  in  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church  have  this  sacrament  from  the  hands  of 
such  a  ministry.  These,  upon  any  theory,  are 
considered  within  the  membership  of  the  Body 
described  as  **Holy  Catholic."     But  what  of 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  143 

others?  They  consider  that  they  hold  and  re- 
ceive this  sacrament.  There  are  those  who  hold 
that  their  irregular  ministry  invalidates  this 
claim.  Is  it  held  by  those  who  use  the  term 
"The  Catholic  Church,"  in  an  exclusive  sense, 
that  those  who  have  been  incorporated  into  its 
membership,  by  Holy  Baptism,  are  excluded 
from  its  membership,  that  is,  are  made  schis- 
matic from  the  Body  of  Christ,  by  reason  of 
this  irregularity?  Or,  upon  this  theory,  are 
they  still  of  the  membership  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  but  irregular  in  practice  and  in  con- 
formity? 

Is  the  threefold  ministry,  unbroken  in  con- 
tinuity, essential  to  the  existence  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church?  Or,  is  the  threefold  minis- 
try as  an  historic  inheritance  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  essential,  as  Hooker  claims,  to  its 
"well  being,"  but  not,  of  necessity,  essential  to 
the  extension  of  its  membership,  nor  of  neces- 
sity, therefore,  essential  to  the  existence  in  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  of  communions  composed 
of  a  part  of  the  catholic  membership,  holding 


144  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

imperfectly  and  incompletely  the  catholic  herit- 
age? 

If  this  be  true,  would  it  not  be  better  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  terms  ''the  Catholic 
Church,"  and  "the  Catholic  heritage?" 

It  is  evident  that  we  are  dealing  here  with 
just  the  same  kinds  of  distinctions  and  of  quali- 
fying and  descriptive  terms  as  are  of  neces- 
sity used  in  defining  and  describing  the  nature 
and  place  of  the  sons  of  God  in  His  Kingdom. 
There  are  those  who  are  His  children  by  na- 
ture, others  by  adoption,  and  those  who  are  still 
His  sons  though  they  have  wandered  into  far 
countries.  It  is  exceedingly  hard  to  define  a 
vital  and  eternal  relationship,  and  harder  still 
to  make  our  human  terminology  adequately  de- 
scriptive, and  sufficiently  definite  and  inclusive, 
of  an  institution  which  is  the  living  Body  of  the 
Living  Christ. 

Then,  too,  it  would  be  well  to  make  it  very 
clear  as  to  what  is  meant  by  the  term  "cath- 
olic sanction,"  and  the  term  "catholic  practice," 
if  the  terms  are  to  be  used  freely  among  us. 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  145 

Are  the  terms  so  used  intended  to  be  descrip- 
tive of  intensive  notes  of  the  catholic  heritage, 
or  the  notes  which  test  and  delimit  the  catholic 
extension  of  the  Church?  Are  they  terms  of 
enrichment,  or  qualities  essential  to  the  exist- 
ence of  what  is  called  the  ''catholic  Church*'? 

This  is  just  the  question  that  arose  between 
St.  Paul,  St.  Peter  and  the  other  apostles  rela- 
tive to  the  Christian  Church  in  apostolic  times. 
It  was  asked  that  it  be  determined  what  prac- 
tices and  customs  and  observances  should  be 
held  as  essential.  Observances  had  been  in- 
sisted upon  by  some  which  St.  Paul  held  would 
delimit  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  Church, 
if  made  a  test  of  loyalty,  or  essential  to  mem- 
bership in  the  catholic  Church.  The  question 
was  taken  before  an  apostolic  council,  and  the 
decree  given  was  that  ''it  seemed  good  to  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  to  us,  to  lay  upon  you  no 
greater  burden  than  these  necessary  things." 
(Acts  XV,  Gal.  ii.) 

It  would  seem  reasonable  to  hope  and  to  ask 
that  the  term  "catholic,"   as   descriptive   of, 


146  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  as  limiting  the  comprehensiveness  of,  the 
Church  should  be  used,  with  the  spirit  of  apos- 
tolic sanction,  in  this  wide  and  comprehensive 
sense.  It  would  also  seem  that  it  would  con- 
duce to  a  larger  readiness  to  accept  the  term  if 
it  could  be  used  in  defence  of  the  claim  to  ob- 
serve the  '^necessary  things."  If  these  neces- 
sary things  are  held  to  be  the  things  declared 
essential  to  salvation  in  the  Gospel  of  redemp- 
tion, then  the  term  becomes  sufficiently  inclu- 
sive to  conform  to  the  sense  in  which  it  is  doubt- 
less used  in  the  creeds  of  the  Church. 

Beyond  this,  the  terms  "catholic  sanction," 
** catholic  practice,"  etc.,  might  well  be  confined 
to  descriptions,  definitions,  interpretations,  and 
practices  pertaining  to  the  ancient  heritage  of 
the  Church  Catholic.  In  any  event,  the  sense 
and  scope  of  the  terms,  when  used,  should  be, 
for  the  sake  of  clearness,  explained  and  defined. 

"When  the  term  " catholic  sanction,"  or  "cath- 
olic authority,"  is  used,  it  would  minister  to  a 
better  understanding  if  what  constituted  the 
sanction  or  authority  were  definitely  stated.    Is 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  147 

the  sanction  or  authority  claimed  that  of  an 
(Ecumenical  Council  or  papal  decree  1    Or  does 
it  mean  the  sanction  of  the  undivided  Roman 
and  Eastern  Church.     Or,  does  it  mean   the 
sanction  of  some  council,  or  the  general  prac- 
tice of  the  Western  Church,  under  Roman  dom- 
ination, prior  to  the  Reformation?    Or,  again, 
is    it    meant    that    the    teaching    or    practice 
is   inherently   catholic   in    its   nature,    and    so 
fully  in  harmony  with  the  teaching  of  Scrip- 
ture,  and   the   revealed   will    of    Christ,   that 
it  deserves  to  be  received  and  held  as  an  inte- 
gral and  indispensable  part  of  the  catholic  faith 
and  practice?     Oh,  is  it  meant  that  the  doc- 
trine and  practice  was  sanctioned  by  authority, 
or  by  use  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  prior 
to  the  English  Reformation,  and  continued  to 
be  held  and  taught  by  many  individuals  in  the 
English  Church  subsequent  to  the  Reformation, 
but  which,  since  the  Reformation,  has  had  the 
ecclesiastical    authority    and    sanction    of    the 
Roman  Church  alone,  or  perhaps  of  the  Greek 
and  Ol'd  Catholic  Church  also?     Then,  too,  it 


148  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

would  be  interesting  and  helpful  to  know 
whether  the  term  "catholic  sanction"  applies 
to  theories  of  interpretation  as  well  as  to  the 
facts  of  the  faith  and  the  historic  continuity  of 
certain  rites  and  practices  in  the  Church. 

If  it  be  said  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  clearly 
define  in  just  what  sense  the  terms  are,  in  each 
instance,  used,  it  may  be  said,  also,  that  it  is 
still  more  difficult  to  understand  just  what  the 
claim  for  the  authority  and  sanction  is  worth 
unless  we  are  told  very  definitely  just  what  the 
person  making  the  claim  has  in  mind  as  the 
basis  on  which  it  is  founded. 

When  it  happens  that,  as  a  result  of  holding 
claims  of  "catholic  authority,"  and  "catholic 
sanction,"  the  rights  and  liberties  of  others  in 
the  Church  are  delimited ;  and  when  it  is  sought, 
as  a  result  of  these  exclusive  views,  to  restrain 
others  in  this  Church  from  acting  within  the 
bounds  of  what  they  feel  is  the  liberty  of  their 
inheritance  as  sons  of  God,  and  as  loyal  mem- 
bers of  this  Church,  then  the  reason  becomes 
still  more   cogent   and  imperative   for   insist- 


'  •  CATHOLIC ' '  AND  ' '  CATHOLIC  SANCTION ' '  149 

ing  that  the  claims  of  catholic  authority 
and  sanction  be  more  clearly  stated  and 
defined. 

If  the  right  and  duty  of  the  Church  in  this 
hour  of  supreme  crisis  to  hold  conference  with 
Protestant  Communions  and  to  co-operate  with 
them  is  denied  upon  the  basis  of  interpretations 
of  the  ordinal,  and  theories  of  the  succession, 
claimed  to  be  of  catholic  authority,  it  is  but 
fair  to  ask  the  source  of  this  authority,  and 
proof  for  the  idea,  which  seems  to  be  assumed, 
that  this  claim  has  ever  been  officially  admitted 
by  either  the  independent  Anglican  Church,  or 
by  this  Church  in  America. 

If,  when  opportunities  for  conference  and 
co-operative  relationship  with  our  Protestant 
friends  (or  opponents,  as  they  are  sometimes 
called  by  the  exclusive  school),  present  them- 
selves, this  Church  by  legislative  decree  refuses 
to  permit  those  who  favour  such  action  to  en- 
gage in  it  with  her  official  sanction,  then  this 
Church  will  indirectly,  through  her  legislative 
action,   give    sanction   to   these   theories    and 


150  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

claims  as  being  binding  upon  the  whole  Episco- 
pal Church. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  point  where  this  vital 
and  far-reaching  question  has  been  forced  to  the 
issue.  The  issue  is  forced  by  those  who  assert 
that  their  theories  and  interpretations  are  of 
catholic  authority,  and  who  deny  the  right  of 
the  Board  of  Missions  and  of  the  Church  to 
participate  in  conferences  and  co-operative  en- 
deavours with  communions  whose  orders  are 
not  of  the  apostolic  succession.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion which  arises  out  of  the  world  crisis  which 
we  face,  and  out  of  the  world  challenge  to  a 
materially  bound  and  ecclesiastically  dominated 
and  divided  Christianity. 

Those  in  the  Church  who  are  not  disposed  to 
question  the  catholic  claim  to  exclusive  inter- 
pretation so  long  as  it  is  confined  to  the  purpose 
of  satisfying  those  who  make  it  as  to  the  nature 
and  kind  of  their  own  priesthood,  and  their 
own  position  of  exclusiveness ;  do  claim  that 
they  are  not  unreasonable  in  asking  that  the 
terms  which  restrict  the  liberty  of  others  be 


**CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  151 

clearly  defined.  Nor  are  they  unreasonable  nor 
contentious  in  insisting  that  the  ground  and 
authority  for  interpretations  and  opinions 
claimed  as  of  catholic  sanction  be  definitely 
stated,  before  the  whole  Church,  through  legis- 
lative enactment,  or  pronouncement,  is  asked  to 
give  sanction  to  these  exclusive  claims  by  deny- 
ing those  who  hold  a  different  view  the  liberty 
to  express  their  convictions  in  conference  and 
co-operative  relationship. 

By  such  restrictions,  the  General  Convention 
would  give  practical  sanction  to  views  and  con- 
tentions, to  theories  and  opinions,  which,  when 
they  have  been  considered  on  their  merits,  have 
never  received  the  official  sanction  of  either  the 
Anglican  or  the  American  Church.  This  is  not 
the  way  to  change  Church  polity. 

That  the  English  Church  Fathers  conferred 
and  co-operated  with  ministers  not  of  her  or- 
der, is  a  fact  written  clearly  in  the  pages  of 
history,  and  that  among  the  first  bishops  con- 
secrated in  this  Church  in  America,  there  were 
those  who  did  so,  is  likewise  known  to  all  who 


152  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

know  the  early  history  of  this  branch  of  the 
Church  of  Christ. 

To  depart  from  this  historic  position;  to  al- 
low any  claims  of  catholic  authority  or  inter- 
pretation to  deprive  churchmen  of  liberal  or  in- 
clusive conviction  of  the  right,  with  the  full  au- 
thoritative sanction  of  this  Church,  to  express 
their  conviction  individually  and  collectively 
would  be  to  reduce  the  comprehensiveness  of 
this  Church  down  to  the  limits  of  a  school  of 
thought,  and  would  brand  her,  in  the  face  of 
the  world  crisis,  as  a  separated  sect,  cut  off  by 
her  insistence  upon  liberty  and  true  catholicity 
from  the  Church  of  Eome,  and  by  her  exclusive 
claims  from  conference  and  oo-operation  with 
Protestant  Christianity. 

While  it  is  not  asked  that  any  legislation 
should  be  enacted  forbidding  those  who  hold 
these  exclusive  views  from  retaining  them,  and 
acting  in  accordance  with  them,  so  far  as  con- 
ference and  co-operative  relationship  with 
Protestant  communions  is  concerned;  it  is 
asked,  and  insisted,  that  this  Church  shall  not 


"CATHOLIC"  AND  "CATHOLIC  SANCTION"  153 

consent  to  legislate,  or  give  official  pronounce- 
ment that  shall  restrain  the  inherent  liberty 
and  cherished  conviction  of  others,  whose  loy- 
alty and  devotion  to  the  Church  is  unquestioned, 
in  the  light  of  her  historic  position,  and  in  the 
presence  of  her  authoritative  standards  as  they 
honestly  and  unequivocally  understand  and 
interpret  them. 

The  point  to  be  clearly  borne  in  mind  is,  that 
to  legislate,  requiring  all  to  confer  and  co-op- 
erate with  those  not  of  this  communion,  would 
be  to  give  the  authoritative  interpretation  and 
sanction  of  this  Church  to  the  liberal  and  in- 
clusive view  of  the  Church,  and  would  be  unfair 
to  those  who  hold  other  views;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  refuse  permission  and  deny  the 
right  of  those  who  desired  to  enter  into  con- 
ference and  co-operative  relationship  with  prot- 
estant  communions  to  do  so  with  her  sanction, 
would  be  to  give  official  endorsement  to  the  po- 
sition and  views  and  contentions  of  the  extreme, 
often  called  catholic,  party  in  the  Church. 

If  this  Church  remains  fully  possessed  of  a 


154  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sound  mind  and  a  well-balanced  judgment,  she 
will  persistently  refuse  to  legislate  to  require 
or  compel  to  co-operate  or  confer  with  other 
communions  those  who  cannot  consistently  do 
so.  She  will  also  persistently  refuse  to  with- 
hold her  official  consent  from  those  who  desire 
such  conference  and  co-operative  liberty. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  PAST 

IT  can  be  conclusively  shown  that  every  dis- 
puted dogma,  taught  and  held  by  the 
Church,  and  authorised  as  a  note  of  catholicity, 
can  be  established  by  quotations  from  the  an- 
cient fathers,  or  the  ancient  councils.  From 
similar  sources  the  contrary  propositions  can 
also  be  conclusively  established.  This  state- 
ment is  true,  for  instance,  of  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation,  or  of  any  interpretation  of 
the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. It  is  true  of  the  doctrine  of  priestly 
absolution,  and  of  various  interpretations  of 
the  apostolic  succession,  and  of  the  growing 
claims  of  the  papacy.  The  ancient  fathers  were 
far  from  being  of  one  mind.    Nothing  is  gained 

155 


156  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

in  controversy  by  quoting  from  them  upon  a 
point  in  question,  if  it  is  intended  by  this  method 
to  establish  the  contention  that  a  certain  inter- 
pretation has  been  always,  and  by  all  men,  held 
upon  any  subject  where  the  effort  has  been  made 
to  explain  how  the  Christ  is  present  in  anything 
human  and  material.  The  fact  of  His  presence 
may  be  established  historically  as  constant  in 
the  faith  of  the  Church.  The  method  of  His 
presence,  and  the  how  of  His  communication  of 
Himself  evidently  perplexed  the  minds  of  the 
fathers  as  it  has  the  minds  of  the  children  of 
the  third  and  fourth  and  all  succeeding  gen- 
erations. 

If  propositions  exactly  contrary  may  be  (as 
they  surely  can  be)  proven  by  quotations  from 
the  Fathers,  then  what  conclusive  service  may 
they  render  to  the  Church  perplexed  with  the 
problem  of  knowing  what  to  authorise  and 
decree  as  being  binding  upon  the  con- 
science, and  essential  in  the  practice  of  the 
Church? 

They  may  render  valuable  service.     Their 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  PAST  157 

voices  would  seem,  all  unconscious  to  the  an- 
cient fathers  themselves,  to  blend  in  an  appeal 
for  liberty  of  interpretation,  for  liberty  of  prac- 
tice, and  for  an  inclusive  Church.  After  the 
contenders  for  a  certain  interpretation  or  prac- 
tice have  filled  pages  with  certain  sure  quo- 
tations from  the  ancient  writings  in  proof  of 
their  view,  and  have  established  it  upon  this 
ground  beyond  question,  then  let  the  contrary 
interpretation  be  stated,  and  call  the  fathers. 
The  same  ones  may  not  come.  (Sometimes  they 
will.)  But  others  with  hair  as  white,  and  with 
forms  as  venerable,  and  with  names  as  highly 
honoured,  will  appear  out  of  the  dim  past  and 
give  testimony  that  will  fill  just  as  many  pages 
proving  the  contrary  theory  or  practice  as  the 
case  may  be.  What  then?  Shall  we  slay  the 
fathers  of  the  contrary  view  as  the  Church 
slew  the  ancient  prophets  and  the  Christ?  Or 
shall  we  learn  from  them  the  necessity  of  mak- 
ing the  Church  comprehensive  of  varied  inter- 
pretations and  practices,  so  long  as  Christ  is 
honoured,  worshipped,  revealed  and  served  as 


158  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  divine  Saviour  of  men  and  the  ever-living 
Head  of  His  Body,  the  Church. 

Shall  we  not  learn  from  them  the  futility  of 
seizing  the  ray  of  light  reflected  from  the  men- 
tal angle  of  the  party  mind  and  formulating  it 
into  a  dogma,  and  labelling  it  the  sun?  Shall 
we  not  learn  that  the  light  of  eternal  truth 
reflects  itself  from  many  angles  1 

If  it  should  be  answered  that  truth  does  not 
shine  both  dark  and  light;  the  reply  is  that 
while  this  is  true,  yet  many  truth-seekers,  or 
truth-holders,  are  unfortunately  colour  blind. 
To  God  they  may  be  both  alike.  We  had  better 
wait  and  see.  In  the  darkness  of  the  night  He 
hath  set  many  stars,  and  some  of  them  are  to 
us  still  invisible.  Truth  is  vaster  than  the 
heavens,  and  extends  beyond  the  stars.  Let  us, 
at  least,  leave  loopholes  in  our  battlements  of 
thought.  It  were  better  to  build  watch  towers 
and  place  in  them  far-seeing  men  to  tell  us  of 
the  night,  what  its  signs  of  promise  are. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
THE   ANCIENT   PATHS 

SURELY  no  man,  no  matter  how  progres- 
sive his  mind  may  be  in  its  tendencies,  will 
despise  the  ancient  paths.  In  them  have  walked 
the  saints  of  all  ages.  The  truth  we  have  in- 
herited has  come  to  us  from  those  who  walked 
in  them.  Along  the  way  are  the  footprints  of 
priests  and  prophets,  and  the  blood-stains  of 
martyrs.  Along  the  way  are  the  ancient  cathe- 
drals where  the  spirit  of  praise  and  devotion  has 
wrought  itself  into  poems  of  rhythmic  stone. 
Down  these  corridors  come  the  harmonies  of 
music  chanted  in  glorious  song.  If  we  listen 
we  may  hear  blended  in  these  symphonies  the 
voices  of  God's  angels.  Over  these  paths  have 
passed    the    great    confessors.     The    ancient 

159 


160  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

creeds  have  come  this  way.  Along  them  have 
passed  the  truth-seekers  of  the  ages,  and  as 
they  passed  they  have  set  up  stones  which  mark 
the  progress  of  the  clearer  revelation  of  God 
to  the  heart  and  mind  of  humanity.  The  an- 
cient paths  are  the  source  of  our  heritage. 
They  mark  the  continuity  of  truth  and  of  hu- 
man experience  through  the  ages.  They  reveal 
the  links  "that  bind  the  generations  each  to 
each."  The  ancient  paths  are  the  paths  of  the 
ever-coming  Christ. 

But  He  has  not  finished  His  advent.  The 
Christmas  message  was  not  a  history  alone  but 
a  revelation  of  a  way  opened  from  heaven  to 
all  men,  at  all  times,  everywhere.  Pentecost 
illumined  not  alone  the  beginning  of  the  ancient 
path,  but  gave  the  revelation  of  His  perpetual 
presence  who  should  be  with  His  Church  unto 
the  end  of  the  world  to  "guide  us  into  all 
truth." 

The  ancient  path  will  grow  longer  and  more 
ancient  as  time  goes  on.  In  it  we  are  not  called 
to  walk  backward,  though  as  we  walk  forward 


THR  ANCIENT  PATHS  161 

we  should  pause  often  to  look  backward,  and 
learn  from  those  who  have  climbed  the  steep 
ascent  through  peril,  toil  and  woe.  Though  of 
the  past,  their  spirits  go  before  the  pilgrims 
of  to-day.  We  follow  in  their  train.  We  rev- 
erently and  humbly  learn  of  them  what  they 
learned  of  Christ,  and  are  enriched  by  the  testi- 
mony of  their  experience  and  their  realisation 
of  the  presence  of  God. 

It  is  for  us  of  the  present  to  determine  how 
the  path  of  an  ancient  life  and  truth,  and  yet 
of  an  ever-living  Lord,  ''the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and  the  Life,"  shall  run  through  the  present, 
and  be  directed  to  the  future.  The  Church  marks 
the  way.  Christ  leads  the  way.  Shall  not  all 
those  who  own  Him  as  their  Lord,  and  follow 
Him,  be  comprehended  in  our  conception  of  it? 
Shall  our  theories  and  our  demands  be  made 
so  exclusive  and  narrow  as  to  force  into  by- 
paths many  whom  He  leads  1  Some  of  these  by- 
paths are,  as  the  years  lengthen  into  centuries, 
becoming  ancient  paths  also.  And  along  them 
are  to  be  found  memorials  which  are  cherished 


162  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

in  the  memories  not  alone  of  the  children  of 
those  who  passed  this  way  to  the  open  gates  of 
Paradise,  but  of  all  who  have  souls  sufficiently 
great  to  honour  heroism  and  to  appreciate  the 
glow  which  hallowed  the  lives  of  these  saints 
of  God,  departed  by  what  some  would  still  call 
sectarian  by-pathways.  Do  we  not  need  a  new 
survey  and  a  more  comprehensive  conception  of 
the  Church  which  we  assert  is  the  accredited 
way  to  heaven!  Should  not  the  Church  be  as 
comprehensive  as  is  the  Christ  who  is  the  ever- 
living  way  1 

It  would  doubtless  come  to  pass  that,  as  a 
result  of  the  sympathy  and  understanding 
which  would  inevitably  grow  out  of  closer  fel- 
lowship, the  non-conformist  Churches  would 
come  to  a  deeper  appreciation  of  the  value  of 
giving  to  the  faith  they  hold  and  the  truth  they 
teach  the  added  authority  which  comes  from 
the  witness  of  its  unbroken  historic  survival 
and  continuity  through  the  centuries  back  to 
the  life  and  teaching  of  Christ  and  His  holy 
apostles. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
INDIVIDUALISM 

TERMS  which  contain  an  idea  expressive 
of  power  and  vitality  often  come,  in  the 
use  of  them,  to  be  terms  of  reproach  and  of 
obloquy.  It  is  usually  the  "ism"  at  the  end 
that  has  in  it  the  sting.  The  "ism'*  is  gener- 
ally the  result  of  the  distortion  and  perversion 
of  the  thought  or  possibility  of  power  which 
the  term  originally  expressed.  The  individual 
has  ever  been  the  chief  concern  of  Christ.  The 
parables  of  the  lost  sheep  and  the  prodigal  son, 
the  discourses  which  He  held  with  individual 
men  and  women,  His  methods  of  personal  ap- 
proach, and  the  expressions  in  His  teaching 
which  tell  of  God's  love  and  care  for  a  human 
soul,  show  how  priceless,  in  His  estimation,  was 

163 


164  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  life  of  the  individual  man.  It  is  in  the 
individual  that  we  find  the  distinctive  elements 
of  personality  which  reveal  the  kinship  of  man 
with  God.  Yet  distinctness  and  force  of  per- 
sonality, and  a  full  measure  of  personal  liberty, 
are  not  incompatible  with  unity.  In  the  Blessed 
Trinity  three  Persons  have  ever  existed  in  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead. 

Individualism  is  personality  run  riot.  In  the 
life  of  the  Church  we  sometimes  hear  it  said 
that  it  is  unwise  and  inexpedient  for  an  indi- 
vidual or  a  party  to  advance  ahead  of  the 
corporate  body.  To  insist  upon  this  restriction 
would  result  in  suppressing  the  thought  and 
energy  of  the  scout  who  has  ever  been  the 
pathfinder  of  truth.  It  is  doubtless  well  to 
caution  the  pioneer  of  the  danger  of  going  too 
far  ahead  of  the  corporate  body,  but  the  liberty 
of  scouting  ahead  in  thought  and  action  should 
be  encouraged  rather  than  censured  by  the 
Church. 

The  individual,  however,  should  be  taught 
that  the  success  and  permanent  worth  of  his 


INDIVIDUALISM  165 

endeavour  as  a  seeker  after  truth  and  an  ex- 
perimenter in  the  great  laboratory  of  experi- 
ence, will  be  determined  by  his  ability  to  con- 
tribute his  ideas  to  the  permanent  inclusive- 
ness  and  solidarity  of  the  corporate  Body.  The 
pioneer  tries  the  ground  ahead.  He  tests  truth 
in  new  fields  of  action.  It  is  true  that  he  is 
exposed  to  peril.  He  is  between  two  fires.  He 
is  a  mark  for  the  enemy  of  the  truth,  and  is  apt 
to  draw  upon  himself  the  fires  of  its  defenders. 
He  is  often  the  martyr  of  history.  He  is  almost 
sure  to  be  branded  as  a  heretic,  and  sometimes 
has  to  wait  until  centuries  after  he  is  dead 
before  the  thought  of  the  world  reaches  the 
point  where  he  fell.  Then  it  may  happen  that 
the  Church  will  mark  the  triumph  of  her  own 
intelligence  by  canonising  the  dead  heretic  as 
a  saint.  This  has  been  the  path  along  which 
many  of  the  saints  have  achieved  their  place  in 
the  canon.  The  Church  is  slow  to  learn  and 
often  too  quick  to  speak.  She  has  to  take  many 
things  back.  This  is  hard  to  do.  It  is  a  con- 
fession of  error  and  of  mistake.     The  institu- 


166  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

tion  that  has  made  much  of  its  infallibility  is 
apt  to  be  reluctant  to  acknowledge  the  mistakes 
of  its  past.  If  larger  liberty  had  been  given 
to  individuals  and  parties  to  try  out  new  ideas, 
to  test  the  prophet's  vision,  and  to  make  experi- 
ment with  the  enthusiasm  of  initiative^  this 
Church  might  have  kept  within  her  fold  many 
who  have  done  vast  good  outside  of  it. 

In  doing  this  the  Church  should  not  be  con- 
sidered as  endorsing  the  idea  or  experiment  be- 
cause she  allows  it.  Again,  the  principle  of  her 
thought,  and  the  attitude  of  her  mind,  should 
be:  ''Let  these  men  alone.  If  this  counsel  or 
this  work  be  of  men,  it  will  come  to  naught; 
but  if  it  be  of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow  it; 
lest  haply  ye  be  found  even  to  fight  against 
God"  (Acts  V,  38  and  39). 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  HORNS  OF  A  DILEMMA 

ETTERS  to  the  Editor"  are  very  illu- 
minating documents.  Most  of  us  have 
written  them  on  some  subject  of  controversy 
which  was  engaging  the  attention  of  the  Church. 
Sometimes  in  sober  thoughtfulness  we  have  re- 
pented having  done  it.  We  have  wondered  if 
the  attention  of  the  Church  might  not  perhaps 
have  been  better  directed  in  more  vital  and 
helpful  channels.  Especially  have  we  thought 
this  after  attending  some  great  missionary 
meeting,  or  after  having  received  clearer  and 
more  far-reaching  vision  through  the  appeal 
and  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Communion.  Then 
there  has  come  to  us  the  consolation  that  per- 
haps they  had  not  absorbed  the  attention  of 
the  Church  very  much  after  all. 

167 


168  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

Nevertheless,  ''Letters  to  the  Editor'*  are, 
at  times,  very  illuminating.  Among  other 
things  they  frequently  illumine  the  bounds  of 
mental  vision  and  the  scope  of  human  sympa- 
thy. Sometimes  they  show  these  bounds  to  be 
very  narrow.  Sometimes  they  reveal  ranges  of 
truth  beyond  the  bounds  of  partisan  interpre- 
tation. These  letters  encourage  us  to  read  oth- 
ers in  the  hope  of  finding  more  like  them.  Per- 
haps that  is  why  the  "Letters  to  the  Editor" 
are  read  to  a  degree  to  justify  the  space  they 
occupy  in  our  Church  papers. 

''Letters  to  the  Editor"  have  an  accustomed 
way  of  seeking,  without  due  ceremony  or  apol- 
ogy, to  throw  us  unconditionally  upon  either 
one  or  the  other  of  the  two  sharp-pointed  horns 
of  a  dilemma.  The  truth,  it  is  said,  must  be 
either  this  or  that.  In  the  last  number  of  one 
of  our  Church  papers  we  are  informed  that 
"the  Church  either  does  or  does  not  believe 
that  the  priest  has  power  to  give  absolution." 
The  writer  insists  that  the  Church  should  say 
whether  he  has  or  has  not. 


THE  HORNS  OF  A  DILEMMA  169 

We  are  informed  that  the  Church  either  does 
or  does  not  believe  in  the  ''real  presence"  of 
Christ  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  that  the 
Church  should  say  whether  she  does  or  does 
not. 

We  are  told  that  the  doctrine  of  the  apos- 
tolic succession  is  either  true,  or  that  it  is  not; 
and  that  the  Church  should  declare  her  inter- 
pretation. 

The  necessity  for  all  this  is  stated  in  the 
claim  set  forth  that  in  the  Church  there  should 
be  but  one  voice,  one  view  and  an  unbroken 
uniformity  of  teaching  on  each  and  every  one  of 
these  points,  and  on  every  other  question  upon 
which,  at  present,  divergent  views  prevail. 

The  Church  very  wisely  allows  divergent 
views  to  prevail.  If  she  sought  to  fasten  any 
vital  truth  to  either  one  or  the  other  of  the 
two  horns  of  the  dilemma,  she  would,  in  many 
instances,  crucify  again  the  truth  itself.  She 
would  certainly  drive  from  her  fold  many 
seekers  after  truth. 

If  she  insisted  upon  giving  to  any  or  all  of 


170  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

these  questions  the  answer  of  an  unconditional 
**Yes,"  and  demanded  that  her  ministry  should 
sign  certain  articles  of  interpretation,  in  which 
the  high  priestly  sacerdotal  view  upon  these 
questions  was  asserted  as  being  the  only  view 
which  might  be  held  and  taught,  she  would,  for 
instance,  exclude  from  her  ministry  the  large 
majority  of  the  graduates  of  the  Virginia  Semi- 
nary, and  many  of  the  graduates  of  Philadel- 
phia, Cambridge,  and  of  other  Church  divinity 
schools.  Had  this  been  done,  the  service  ren- 
dered at  home  and  in  foreign  lands  by  these  men 
would,  of  necessity,  have  had  to  be  rendered 
outside  of  her  fold. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  she  gave  in  answer  an 
unconditional  ''No,"  and  required  subscription 
to  articles  in  which  the  high  priestly  and  sacer- 
dotal claims  were  denied  and  repudiated,  most 
of  the  graduates  of  the  General,  of  Faribault, 
Nashotah,  and  many  of  the  graduates  of  other 
seminaries  would  have  been,  and  would  now 
be,  excluded  from  the  ministry  of  this  Church. 

Would  writers  of  ''Letters  to  the  Editor'* 


THE  HORNS  OF  A  DILEMMA  171 

really  wish  to  force  men  to  either  the  one  alter- 
native or  the  other  with  the  necessary  resulting 
consequences  ? 

Upon  such  horns  may  be  hung  men*s  hats, 
and  men's  scalps,  but  not  the  brains  and  hearts 
of  vital,  loving,  conscientious  Churchmen,  who 
see  the  tnith  from  different  viewpoints,  who 
teach  it  with  varied  emphasis,  and  who  some- 
times see  gleams  of  it  in  both  the  ''Yes"  and 
the  *'No"  of  the  paradoxes  stated  in  the  ''Let- 
ters to  the  Editor." 

Unless  we  are  really  determined  to  make  the 
Church  less  catholic  than  she  now  is,  we  should 
resolutely  refuse  to  delimit  her  comprehensive- 
ness by  seeking  to  give  the  exclusive  sanction 
of  authority,  or  of  official  interpretation,  to 
those  notes  of  conviction  voiced  in  the  letters 
of  exclusive  and  partisan  contention.  The 
writers  of  these  letters  would  make  the  colour 
of  loyalty  so  vivid,  and  so  clearly  defined,  and 
so  lurid  that  there  could  be  no  shadings  of 
colour  away  from  it  or  into  it.  In  this  event, 
the  Church  would  become  a  doctrinal  paintshop. 


172  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

or,  at  most,  a  formal  gallery  of  ecclesiastical 
art  of  one  school  of  painters. 

Truth  has  ever  refused  to  be  so  portrayed. 
Vital  and  eternal,  she  gleams  and  glows  and 
shines  in  and  through  the  souls  of  men,  and 
reflects  her  light  from  many  angles  of  many 
minds.  As  the  sun  glows  in  myriad  colours 
from  the  snow-capped  Alps,  made  refulgent 
with  sunset  glory;  shimmers  in  varied  hues 
upon  the  forest  leaves,  and  on  the  limpid  lake, 
and  colour-changing  sea ;  as  its  light  is  reflected 
in  the  tinted  bloom  of  every  flower,  in  the  pale 
radiance  of  the  moonlight,  and  in  the  golden 
gleam  of  the  stars ;  even  so  is  the  light  of  truth 
refulgent  in  and  reflected  from  the  thought  and 
spiritual  experience  of  man.  As  one  star  dif- 
f ereth  from  another  star  in  glory,  even  so  differ 
the  gleams  of  truth,  which  come  from  the  minds 
of  men. 

But  surely  truth  is  too  vital,  and  too  pre- 
cious, and  too  divine  to  be  stereotyped  and  de- 
limited to  the  narrow  bounds  of  an  interpre- 
tative *' Yes"  or  *'No,"  as  is  often  insisted  upon 


TH£  HORNS  OF  A  DILEMMA  17:^ 

in  the  '^Letters  to  the  Editor."  If  the  Church 
is  to  edit  truth,  let  the  Church,  for  the  truth's 
sake,  and  for  man's  sake,  edit  it  largely,  and 
not  copyright  the  edition  for  all  time.  If  she 
is  to  set  up  sign  posts  along  the  way  of  truth 
to  point  men  heavenward,  let  "the  way"  be  in- 
dicated by  the  straight  arm  of  a  cross  pointing 
to  the  path  marked  by  the  footprints  of  the 
Son  of  Man.  But  let  there  not  be  set  in  the 
way  of  truth  the  theories  of  men  to  be  the 
authoritative  guide-posts  along  the  way  that 
leadeth  to  truth  and  to  life.  ''The  way"  is  the 
way  of  life.  It  is  a  narrow  way,  but  it  is  wider 
than  many  of  the  more  narrow  and  exclusive 
interpretations  of  human  thought. 


CHAPTER  XX 
THE  PARADOXES  OF  TRUTH 

BECAUSE  of  the  fact  that  truth  is  eternal 
and  cannot  be  fully  comprehended  in  posi- 
tive or  negative  statements  made  by,  or  com- 
prehended by,  the  human  mind,  the  great  teach- 
ers of  truth  have  often  spoken  in  paradoxes. 
The  negative  and  the  affirmative  of  a  proposi- 
tion have  been  stated  with  perfect  fearless- 
ness of  seeming  contradiction,  and  with  entire 
disregard  of  seeming  inconsistency.  This 
method  of  stating  or  of  suggesting  the  scope 
of  truth  shows  that  the  teacher  recognises  the 
inadequacy  of  human  reason  to  comprehend  its 
limits,  and  to  define  its  bounds.  This  method 
was  often  used  by  the  Great  Teacher,  who  was 
Himself  the  eternal  Truth.   *  *  No  man, ' '  He  said, 

174 


THE  PARADOXES  OF  TRUTH  175 

''hath  seen  the  Father:"  "He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father."  "I  can  of  my  own 
self  do  nothing:"  "All  power  is  given  unto 
me."  "I  go  my  way  to  Him  that  sent  me:" 
"Lo  I  am  with  you  always."  "This  is  my 
Body"  and  "My  flesh  is  meat  indeed:"  "The 
flesh  profiteth  nothing."  "I  seek  not  mine 
own  glory:"  "Father,  glorify  thou  me  with 
the  glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the 
world  was. "  "  Not  my  will  but  thine  be  done : ' ' 
"I  and  my  Father  are  one."  These  are  but  a 
few  illustrations  of  His  frequent  use  of  the 
paradoxical  method  of  teaching. 

The  natural  mind,  the  material  and  there- 
fore skeptical  and  superficial  thought,  has  ever 
seen  in  such  paradoxical  statements  irreconcil- 
able contradictions.  The  soul  that  feels  God, 
and  knows  Him  in  experience,  knows  that  He 
cannot  be  fully  known.  The  spirit-illumined 
mind  realises  that  truth  is  found  in  paradoxes, 
but  sees  that  in  the  impossibility  of  finding  it 
fully  expressed  in  either  one  paradox  or  the 
other,  lies  the  proof  that  the  finite  mind  cannot 


176  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

by  either  a  negative  or  positive  assertion  con- 
tain and  express  what  is  infinite. 

From  the  vast  conception  and  reverence  for 
truth,  seen  in  the  Master's  use  of  the  paradox 
as  a  teaching  method,  the  Church  might  well 
learn  in  larger  measure  to  refrain  from  forc- 
ing truth  upon  either  one  or  the  other  of  the 
horns  of  a  dilemma,  and  from  insisting,  through 
the  voice  of  any  party  within  her  fold,  that 
what  is  eternal  in  its  nature  and  relationship 
should  be  delimited  into  narrow  and  exclusive 
doctrinal  or  interpretational  expressions,  set 
forth  with  the  sanction  of  a  binding  authority. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  CENTRAL  GROUND  POSITION 

IT  cannot  be  expected  that  all  will  occupy 
this  position.  It  is,  however,  necessary  that 
it  should  be  strongly  occupied,  not  alone  for 
the  defence  of  the  truth  held  by  those  who 
maintain  the  position,  but  also  for  the  defence 
of  those  who  occupy  either  one  or  the  other  of 
the  extreme  positions.  Without  the  holders  of 
the  central  ground,  the  positions  of  both  ex- 
tremes would,  from  time  to  time,  become  un- 
tenable. The  occupants  of  the  extreme  posi- 
tions are  exclusive,  and  are  apt  to  be  partisan. 
Jealous  of  their  own  rights,  logically  convinced 
that  they  are  the  chosen  champions  of  the 
Church,  without  whom  she  would  cease  to  exist, 
they  are   ever  prone  to   aggressive  warfare. 

177 


178  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

They  are  disposed  to  be  intolerant  of  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  those  from  whom  they  differ. 
They  see  no  reason  or  justice  in  the  demand  for 
the  central  ground.  They  say  it  is  an  unworthy, 
compromise  position.  The  Church,  they  say, 
must  be  either  catholic  or  protestant.  Choose 
ye  which. 

The  Church  faces  no  such  necessity.  She  has 
never,  even  during  the  time  of  Christ,  or  during 
the  life  of  the  apostles,  or  at  any  time  during 
her  history,  been  exclusively  the  one  or  the 
other.  She  has  ever  been,  and  must  ever  be, 
protestant  against  all  error,  in  order  that  she 
may  be  catholic  and  inclusive  of  all  truth. 

Those  occupying  the  central  ground  are  not 
appealing  in  any  sense  for  a  via  media  compro- 
mise settlement.  The  sacrifice  of  conviction  to 
a  compromise  level  is  not  asked,  because  such 
a  sacrifice  would  be  unworthy  and  weak. 

The  contention  of  those  of  the  central  ground 
is  that  the  Church  should  be  made  and  kept 
comprehensive.  When  the  extreme  high  party 
would  seek  to  impose  upon  the  whole  Church 


THE  CENTRAL  GROUND  POSITION      179 

their  theories  of  orders  based  upon  an  exclu- 
sive interpretation  of  the  apostolic  succession, 
those  of  the  central  position  become  earnestly 
protestant,  and  intensely  catholic.  They  pro- 
test against  contentions  which  brand  those  who 
do  not  accept  these  interpretations  as  **  dis- 
loyal," ''traitors"  and  ''the  friends  of  schis- 
matics." They  become  ardently  catholic  in 
their  appeal  for  the  love  that  thinketh  no  evil, 
and  for  the  claim  of  a  Church  comprehensive 
enough  for  both  a  Bishop  Brooks  and  the  Bishop 
of  Fond  Du  Lac. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  extreme  low 
party  will  hear  nothing  of  priests  and  apostolic 
succession  claims,  and  ancient  catholic  prac- 
tices repudiated  in  the  Reformation  settlement, 
and  would  fain  force  these  brethren  into  Rome, 
calling  them  "apists"  and  covenant  breakers, 
then  the  party  of  the  central  ground  again 
becomes  both  protestant  and  catholic  and 
pleads  for  a  stay  of  execution.  These  men, 
they  say,  are  sincere  and  devoted.  They  stand 
by  the  stake  which  they  consider  essential  to 


180  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  survival  of  the  tabernacle,  and  keep  ham- 
mering it  firmly  in  the  ground.  Let  them  alone. 
You,  who  are  interested  in  lengthening  the 
cords,  and  stretching  the  wing  of  the  tent,  will 
find  some  day  that  the  strong  pole  at  the  centre, 
which  these  men  have  guarded  and  hanunered 
in  by  tradition,  and  syllogism,  and  devotion,  has 
given  you  something  rooted  and  grounded  in 
the  past  to  tie  to.  You  are  essential  to  each 
other.  Conservatism  and  enthusiasm;  the  ec- 
clesiastic and  the  progressive,  are  not  of  ne- 
cessity enemies.  They  are  essentially  depend- 
ent. It  is  a  question,  after  all,  of  emphasis, 
of  conviction,  of  liberty. 

We  have  often  recalled  the  assertion  made 
by  the  scholarly  and  devoted  Lord  Bishop  of 
Kingston,  who  remarked  that  *'the  low  and 
evangelical  churchman  seemed  more  successful 
in  winning  men  for  Christ  and  His  Church,  and 
the  high  churchman  seemed  more  success- 
ful in  holding  on  to  them;  and  the  Church 
needed  them  both. ' '  He  then  quietly  observed, 
that  "he  wished  they  would  stop  fighting  each 


THE  CENTRAL  GROUND  POSITION      181 

other,  because  in  this  they  did  the  Church  much 
harm  in  every  way." 

That  which  gives  to  the  holders  of  the  cen- 
tral position  their  strength  and  influence  is 
the  fact  that  this  class  is  composed  of  men 
representing  all  schools  of  thought  in  the 
Church.  The  extreme  high,  low,  ritualistic,  and 
broad  churchman,  are  all  found  represented 
among  those  who,  while  tenacious  of  their  views 
and  convictions,  are  yet  men  of  sufficient  breadth 
of  sympathy  and  of  comprehensiveness  of 
thought  to  stand  together  in  their  contention 
for  a  Church  that  shall  be  inclusive  of  widely 
divergent  views,  so  long  as  there  is  a  loyal 
devotion  to  Christ,  and  to  the  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  the  Church  as  the  Body  of  Christ. 

They  recognise  that  the  triumph  of  either 
extreme  wing  of  the  Church  would  spell  dis- 
aster, and  would  inevitably  result  in  turning 
the  Church  into  a  school  of  thought,  or  in  de- 
grading her  to  the  level  of  a  sect. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  LANGUAGE  OF  COURTESY  AND  OF 
CONTROVERSY 

THE  term  ''the  Church"  is  used  with  va- 
ried significance  by  the  same  men  under 
different  circumstances.  In  conferences  where 
men  of  different  communions  are  gathered,  it  is 
applied,  by  courtesy,  to  all  who,  having  been 
baptised,  profess  and  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians, even  by  men  who,  in  Church  paper  contro- 
versy, and  in  their  own  pulpit  utterances,  apply 
it  to  the  organisation  of  the  apostolic  succes- 
sion alone,  using  the  words  "denominations,'* 
** sectarians,"  ''our  enemies,"  and  "our  op- 
ponents" as  descriptive  of  those  who  "are  not 
of  the  Church."  It  is  a  question  as  to  when 
these  men  are  at  their  best.    We  do  not  pre- 

182 


COURTESY  AND  CONTROVERSY         183 

sume  to  lay  the  invidious  charge  of  inconsist- 
ency against  them.  It  is  better  that  men  should 
be  inconsistent  and  liberal  sometimes,  than  con- 
sistently narrow  all  the  time.  It  is,  however, 
significant  that  the  mind,  when  brought  into 
the  atmosphere  of  a  common  spiritual  expe- 
rience, should  use  the  term  "the  Church"  in  a 
comprehensive  sense,  even  though  it  confines 
the  term  to  the  limits  of  a  logical  exclusive- 
ness  when  in  the  controversial  mood. 

A   MATTER   OF    EMPHASIS 

There  is  no  question  but  that  in  the  Anglican 
Church,  and  in  this  Church  in  America,  the 
question  of  the  interpretation  of  the  ordinal  is 
the  crucial  question  which  lies  back  of  prac- 
tically every  controversy  that  claims  any 
measure  of  public  attention  regarding  the 
Church  and  her  divine  and  human  relation- 
ships. Controversies  relative  to  sacraments, 
pulpit  exchange,  conferences,  co-operation,  and 
terminology,  all  have  their  root  in  this  ultimate 
question  of  the  regularity  and  validity  of  or- 


184  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ders.  At  times  one  would  imagine,  from  what 
is  written  by  way  of  interpretation,  that  Christ 
came  into  the  world  to  preserve  the  apostolic 
succession  of  the  ministry,  so  insistent  and  vio- 
lent are  the  assertions  made  on  the  subject. 
If  there  are  no  sacraments  without  the  Church, 
and  no  Church  without  the  unbroken  succession 
of  order,  and  no  covenant  of  salvation  with- 
out sacraments,  then  well  might  the  Christ  have 
lived  and  died  for  the  establishment  and  preser- 
vation of  the  succession.  This  is  not,  however, 
where  the  emphasis  is  placed  in  the  great 
Gospel  of  Redemption ;  nor  is  it  where  the  em- 
phasis is  placed  in  the  rest  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment literature.  That  a  succession  was  intend- 
ed, and  is  clearly  implied,  and  was  begun,  and 
began  to  be  continued,  there  is  evidence.  But 
that  it  was  to  be  made  the  test  of  loyalty  of 
men  to  their  Lord,  or  to  supersede  this  mark 
and  token  of  their  membership  in  His  Body,  is 
not  taught  in  Sacred  Scripture.  Indeed,  the 
contrary  teaching  is  clearly  indicated,  if  not 
implicitly  given. 


COURTESY  AND  CONTROVERSY    185 

The  exclusive  theory  of  the  succession  may 
be  applied  as  a  test  to  ascertain  the  regularity 
of  orders  according  to  this  standard.  It  were 
almost  sacrilegious  to  demand  it  as  a  condition 
of  a  valid  ministry  in  the  Church  of  Christ. 
He  gives  His  clear  and  visible  tokens  that  this 
irregular  ministry  is  valid  for  the  purpose  of 
building  men  into  His  Body.  And  this  is  surely 
His  chief  concern.  His  will  that  men  should 
be  saved  takes  precedence  over  the  form  in 
which  the  Church  that  helps  save  them  is  con- 
stituted. The  essential  and  vital  union  of  the 
souls  of  men  with  Him,  as  Saviour,  is  the  ques- 
tion of  prime  importance  with  reference  to  the 
Church,  which  is  His  Body. 


CHAPTER  XXin 

THE  FENCE  THROUGH  THE  MIDDLE 
GROUND 

IF  these  words,  which  are  but  the  feeble  effort 
to  express  a  sincere  conviction  of  what  we 
earnestly  believe  is  a  true  and  loyal  conception 
of  a  comprehensive  and  catholic  Church,  should 
perchance  come  to  the  attention  of  extreme  men 
of  either  the  high  or  low  school  of  thought 
in  the  Church,  we  apprehend  that  the  charge 
will  be  made  that,  in  contending  for  compre- 
hensiveness, we  have  straddled  the  fence  upon 
every  proposition  considered.  The  charge  is 
doubtless  true.  But  who  had  the  right  to  build 
a  fence  right  across  the  middle  ground  of  our 
inheritance  as  the  children  of  God?  Who  has 
the  right  to  run  a  hard  and  fast  line  through 

m 


PENCE  THROUGH  THE  MIDDLE  GROUND     187 

the  middle  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  say  that 
the  true  conception  of  the  Church  lies  exclu- 
sively on  one  side  of  that  thought  line,  or  on  the 
other?  What  is  a  man  to  do  but  straddle  the 
line  when  he  finds  it  there,  when  he  believes  in 
his  heart  that  the  truth  is  on  both  sides  of  it  I 
After  all,  if  charges  must  needs  be  made,  do 
they  not  lie  more  against  the  fence  builders 
than  against  those  who  are  forced  to  climb  and 
sit  on  the  fence  in  order  that  they  may  see 
the  far  reaches  of  the  fields  of  truth?  But  let 
those  who  straddle  the  line  straddle  it  widely 
and  not  stand  fast  upon  it  as  a  via  media  of 
their  own  making  or  choice.  The  place  on  the 
top  of  the  fence  should  never  be  chosen  as  a 
compromise  position,  but  as  a  vantage  point  of 
wider  vision. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  MONK 

AS  we  considered  these  two  pilgrims  who, 
among  others,  were  passing  in  review 
through  the  present,  we  asked,  does  the  Church 
need  them?  Is  there  room  for  them  in  this 
Church?  The  extreme  partisan  of  the  low 
Church  party  would  doubtless  answer,  *'No. 
They  antedate  the  Reformation.  They  savour 
strongly  of  sacerdotalism.  They  hold  views  for 
which  we  find  no  warrant  in  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  Let  them  go  to  Rome. "  There  are 
still  among  Protestants  those  who  would  con- 
sider that,  in  saying  this,  they  were  consigning 
the  monk  and  the  priest  to  perdition.  There 
are  wide  ranges  of  conviction  concerning  things 
ecclesiastical  among  those  who  profess  and  call 

188 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  MONK  189 

themselves  Christian,  but  who  call  their  breth- 
ren by  names  which  must  sound  wonderfully 
pleasing  to  the  ears  of  the  Devil. 

The  question  which  faces  us  relative  to  the 
need  and  the  place  for  the  priest  and  the  monk 
is  not  as  to  whether  the  sacerdotal  views  of  the 
one,  or  the  mediaeval  customs  of  the  other, 
square  with  the  standards  of  this  branch  of  the 
Catholic  Church  as  they  now  stand  printed  in 
the  Prayer  Book,  and  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Church.  They  themselves  being  the  judges,  it 
is  admitted  that  they  do  not.  Their  protest 
against  the  reformation,  their  appeal  to  an- 
cient catholic  custom,  their  use  of  ritual  cere- 
monial and  vestments  which  are  not  sanctioned 
by  any  authority  which  this  Church,  since  the 
Reformation,  has  decreed  and  set  forth,  is  proof 
of  the  fact  that  present  standards  and  inter- 
pretations are  not,  to  their  minds  and  to  their 
tastes,  sufficiently  comprehensive.  In  saying 
this,  we  are  sure  we  do  these  men  no  injustice. 
It  is  our  understanding  of  their  position  from 
what  they  themselves   assert  and  do.     Their 


190  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

right  to  do  these  things  in  the  light  of  existing 
standards  is  a  question  of  conscience  upon 
which  the  writer  is  not  called  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment. 

The  question  of  vital  importance  is: — What 
shall  be  the  policy  and  attitude  of  this  Church 
to  the  sacerdotal  priest  and  the  monk  in  the 
days  and  years  which  lie  ahead  of  us?  It  is 
neither  right  nor  wise  to  leave  them  stand- 
ing in  suspense  before  the  bar  of  conscience. 
It  is  well  neither  for  them,  nor  for  bishops, 
charged  with  the  responsibility  of  discipline, 
that  views  so  widespread  and  practices  so  gen- 
erally observed  should  seem  to  be  in  violation 
of  the  expressed  law,  or  if  not  so,  in  opposition 
to  the  practices  and  principles  authoritatively 
sanctioned. 

It  is  always  dangerous,  and  frequently  mani- 
festly unfair,  to  present  alternatives  of  choice 
as  though  they  presented  the  only  possible  solu- 
tion of  a  problem. 

It  would  seem,  however,  in  answer  to  this 
question  of  the  duty  and  responsibility  of  the 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  MONK  191 

Church,  that  one  of  three  alternatives  faces  us. 

In  the  first  place,  if  the  radical  contentions 
of  the  low  Church  partisan  should  prevail,  this 
other  extreme  party  would  be  turned  .over  to 
Rome.  But  they  do  not  desire  to  be  turned  over 
to  Rome.  They  may  hope  that  the  time  may 
come  when  the  term  catholic  will  not  be  hyphen- 
ated either  with  Roman  or  with  Protestant. 
They  may  desire  and  help  hasten  the  time  when 
Roman  and  Eastern  Catholicism  may  prove  ac- 
ceptable and  congenial  to  them,  or  when  they 
may  absorb  the  Roman  or  the  Eastern  Church, 
or  both. 

But,  as  they  stand  to-day,  and  as  Rome 
stands  to-day,  they  are  not  in  agreement. 
They,  therefore,  cannot  be,  nor  should  they  be, 
forced  to  accept  Roman  Catholicism  as  a  choice 
between  two  evils.  They  would  doubtless  pre- 
fer to  bear  what  they  consider  the  evils  of  the 
Church  to  which  they  belong,  as  it  now  is, 
rather  than  be  forced  to  fly  to  other  evils  that 
they  know  of  full  well. 

In  the  second  place,  if  denied  what  they  be- 


192  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

lieve  to  be  their  catholic  liberty,  they  may  feel 
constrained  to  ultimately  form  a  new  old 
Catholic  Church.  The  expression  a  **new 
Catholic  Church"  is,  of  course,  contradictory, 
and  the  expression  ''old  Catholic  Church"  is 
tautological.  But  everything  ecclesiastical 
seems  in  these  days  to  be  involved  in  contradic- 
tions. The  erection  of  *'the  Catholics"  in  the 
Church  into  a  Church  apart,  called  by  what- 
ever name  might  be  chosen,  would  be  a  possi- 
bility, but  it  would  not  seem  to  be  a  step  away 
from  schism,  or  a  step  toward  a  closer  unity 
in  the  already  fragmentated  Body  of  Christ. 
But  if  the  choice  has  to  be  made,  as  we  are  told 
it  must  be  made,  between  protestant  and  cath- 
olic, then  it  must  be  made  by  those  who  insist 
upon  its  being  made,  and  who  fail  to  see  that 
the  Church,  or  a  large  section  of  it,  will  insist 
upon  remaining  protestant  in  order  that  they 
may  remain  catholic  in  keeping  with  the  historic 
position,  which  many  will  continue  to  believe  is 
the  catholic  position  of  the  Church. 

The  third  alternative  lies  in  the  hope  and 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  MONK  193 

possibility  of  making  this  Church  comprehen- 
sive, and  much  more  than  tolerantly  compre- 
hensive, of  all  schools  of  spiritually  minded 
thought  within  the  Church. 

If  this  is  to  be  brought  to  pass,  there  must  of 
necessity  be  some  very  large-minded  and  far- 
reaching  thinking  done  by  all  who  are  con- 
cerned. Concessions  that  are  costly  will  have 
to  be  made.  Clear  distinctions  will  have  to  be 
drawn  between  things  spiritual  and  formal,  and 
between  facts  and  theories.  Positions  which 
may  seem  contradictory,  because  they  are  oppo- 
sites,  must  be  admitted  possible  of  tenure  in  the 
effort  to  test  out  their  truth  in  the  realm  of 
human  experience.  When  what  is  cherished  as 
precious  truth  by  some,  seems  darksome  error 
to  others,  then  again  the  attitude  of  the  oppo- 
sition must  be,  ''Let  these  men  alone.  If  this 
doctrine  is  of  man,  it  will  be  brought  to  naught ; 
if  it  be  of  God,  beware  lest  ye  be  found  to  fight 
against  God. ' '  The  judgments  of  the  mind  must 
be  made  in  the  consciousness  of  the  presence  of 
God,  Who  is  Eternal  Truth,  and  Who,  in  the 


194  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

course  of  time,  will  vindicate  Himself.  The 
deductions  of  the  limited  and  finite  minds  of 
controversialists  will  not  be  taken  as  though 
they  were  the  oracles  of  God.  They  will  be 
examined  candidly  and  given  the  consideration 
which  the  thought  of  one  sincere  man  deserves 
at  the  bar  of  another  man's  judgment.  Terms 
of  an  unbrotherly  kind  will  not  be  hurled 
through  the  press  and  from  the  battlements  of 
Church  papers,  and  from  pistols  pointed  over 
the  editor's  desk.  ^'Mr.  Editor"  will  not  be 
asked  to  call  the  man  who  does  not  agree  with 
the  writer  a  ''traitor,"  or  a  ''schismatic." 
Such  terms  will  not  be  used  of  priests  of  the 
Church,  not  yet  deposed,  by  those  who  would 
themselves  wish  to  be  considered  possessed  of 
the  virtues  of  a  Christian  man,  or  the  common 
decency  which  becomes  the  character  of  a 
gentleman. 

The  priest  and  the  monk  should  be  given 
ample  room  in  the  comprehensiveness  of  the 
Church  of  the  future.  The  terms  of  their  ten- 
ure of  office  and  position  and  conviction  should 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  MONK  195 

be  made  certain,  and  the  settlement  should  be 
liberal  and  widely  inclusive. 

The  priest  and  the  monk  should,  however,  be 
brought  to  clearly  understand  that  the  liberty 
that  is  to  them  allowed  is  not  assented  to  in  a 
way  that  makes  their  liberty  a  law  of  conform- 
ity for  the  whole  Church.  They  must  be 
brought  to  see  very  clearly  that  no  matter  how 
firm  their  convictions  may  be,  they  are  in- 
cluded in  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  Church 
which  also  comprehends  other  views.  The  leg- 
islation which  gives  the  larger  liberty  should 
be  expressed  by  the  word  ''May/'  and  not  by 
the  word ''Must." 

If,  to  this  end,  those  who  occupy  the  middle 
ground  shall  agree  to  endeavour  to  make  the 
Church  comprehensive  of  the  sacerdotal  priest 
and  the  monk,  and  to  sanction  the  existence  and 
work  of  inner  shrine  sacred  orders,  then  the 
priest  and  the  monk  must  also  agree  that  those 
of  the  middle  ground  shall  also  be  left  free  to 
seek  to  make  the  Church  inclusive  of  the  prophet 
and  placed  on  conference  terms  with  the  protes- 


196  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

tant  ministry  not  of  this  Church,  and  brought 
at  times,  and  under  pre-accepted  conditions, 
into  co-operative  relationship  with  any  who  are 
of  the  Body  of  Christ  through  the  sacrament  of 
baptism. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  NONCON- 
FORMIST MINISTER 

IF  there  be  those  in  the  comprehensive 
Church  of  the  future  who  shall  desire  to 
hear  the  message  of  some  prophet  of  God,  not 
of  the  ministry  of  this  Church,  liberty  must  be 
given  that  this  message  may  be  proclaimed  and 
judged,  as  every  message  is,  upon  its  merit,  and 
in  view  of  its  harmony  with  eternal  truth. 

If  there  be  those  then,  as  there  are  those  now, 
who  desire  freely  to  invite  other  Christians  to 
the  Holy  Communion  of  this  Church,  their  lib- 
erty to  do  so  must  be  granted.  Their  conten- 
tion that  no  theory  or  interpretation  should  be 
set  as  a  barrier  to  prevent  any  child  of  the 
Father  who  has  openly  confessed  his  faith  in 

197 


198  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

Christ  as  his  personal  Saviour  from  receiving 
the  strengthening  and  refreshing  of  his  soul 
by  coming  to  the  Communion  when  he  feels 
himself  called  there  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
must  be  freely  granted  and  allowed. 

If  there  shall  be  those  who  desire  to  partici- 
pate in  the  future  in  such  communions  as  the 
one  which  gave  rise  to  the  Kikuyu  controversy, 
their  liberty  to  do  so  must  be  allowed. 

If  there  should,  be  those  who,  in  response  to 
a  spiritual  conviction,  feel  disposed  to  attend 
the  conununion  of  a  non-conformist  Church,  the 
sacerdotal  priest  and  the  monk  must  agree  to 
assent  that,  while  they  could  never  do  such  a 
thing  (and,  of  course,  they  would  never  be 
asked  to),  yet  the  liberty  of  the  priest  or  lay- 
man who  can,  with  conscience,  do  so  must  be 
by  the  whole  Church  allowed.  This  would  by 
no  means  imply  that  the  whole  Church  sanc- 
tioned and  assented  to  a  parity  of  orders.  It 
would  mean  this  no  more  than  it  would  mean 
that  the  whole  Church  assented  to  the  doc- 
trine of  masses  for  the  dead  because  it  per- 


I'HE  PROPHET  AND  THE  NONCONFORMIST  199 

mitted  those  who  did  believe  in  them  to  have 
communions  memorial  of  the  souls  of  the 
faithful  departed. 

The  principle  here  contended  for  is  that  the 
whole  Church  may  unanimously  agree  to  per- 
mit the  expression  of  conviction  on  the  part  of 
those  who  constitute  a  minority,  and  whose 
views  and  convictions  in  no  way  represent  the 
convictions  of  the  majority. 

THE   OBJECTION 

The  sacerdotal  priest  and  the  monk  may  be 
strongly  disposed  to  object  that  it  would  be 
asking  too  much  for  them  to  agree  to  such  a 
procedure  as  this.  Would  not  our  assent  to 
such  comprehensiveness  as  that  suggested  in- 
validate the  very  fundamental  principle  of 
succession  upon  which  the  Church  is  founded! 
By  no  means.  This  Church  in  America  has 
never  expressed  its  mind  on  this  subject.  It 
has  never  formulated  a  theoiy  of  the  succes- 
sion.   It  says  very  clearly  what  is  required  of 


200  '^THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

those  who  are  to  be  accounted  ministers  in  and 
of  ''this  Church.*'  It  says  nothing  as  to  who 
are  to  be  accounted  ministers  hy  this  Church. 

For  the  Church  as  a  whole  to  make  herself 
inclusive  of  those  who  would  hold  fellowship, 
conference,  and  even  communion,  with  those  not 
of  this  Church,  would  be  neither  to  sanction  nor 
to  repudiate  any  doctrine  of  the  apostolic  suc- 
cession. It  would  simply  be  to  accord  to  those 
who  place  upon  this  doctrine  a  major  empha- 
sis and  hold  it  absolutely  essential,  the  liberty 
to  hold  their  respective  convictions,  and  the 
right  to  express  them.  If  the  General  Con- 
vention should,  by  a  majority  vote,  order  that 
all  its  members  should  attend  a  joint  commu- 
nion with  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly, 
or  of  necessity  go  as  delegates  to  Panama  or 
Rome,  then  convictions  would  be  sacrificed  upon 
the  altar  of  tyranny  by  the  power  of  a  majority. 

But  for  the  Church  as  a  whole  to  legislate 
for  the  full  liberty  of  any  part  of  it,  even  though 
that  part  be  but  a  minority,  does  in  no  way, 
and    to    no    degree    whatsoever,    commit    the 


THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  NONCONFORMIST  201 

Church  as  a  whole  to  the  view  of  that  minority 
or  majority,  as  the  case  may  be,  as  being  the 
exclusive  position  held  on  the  question  by  the 
whole  Church. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

NECESSARY  RESTRICTIONS  UPON 
LIBERTY 

LIBERTY  is  unbounded  in  the  realms  of 
eternal  truth,  because  eternal  truth  is  un- 
bounded. It  is,  however,  contradicted  by  error. 
In  human  thought  the  possibilities  of  error  are 
inherent  by  reason  of  the  finite  nature  of  the 
human  mind.  Neither  one  of  two  propositions 
is  necessarily  wholly  wrong  because  they  ap- 
pear logically  contradictory  and  exclusive  of 
each  other.  Some  truth  may  inhere  in  each 
proposition.  It  often  happens  that  the  con- 
tradiction arises  out  of  the  inadequacy  of  a 
statement  to  include  all  the  elements  of  truth, 
and  all  the  facts  of  experience  which  it  assumes 
to  comprehend  and  explain.    Within  the  wide 

202 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY  203 

realms  of  truth,  the  seeker  after  it  should  be 
allowed  the  widest  possible  liberty.  It  should 
also  be  allowed  that  ample  room  and  full  scope 
should  be  given  in  the  Church  to  test  various 
aspects  of  truth  in  the  realm  of  experience. 

The  Church,  however,  must  set  certain 
bounds  to  the  thinking  process,  and  to  the  prac- 
tice which  is  to  prevail  with  her  sanction,  in 
order  that  the  integrity  of  truth  may  not  be 
confused  with  the  disintegrating  power  of  the 
error  which  is  distinctly  contrary  to  the  es- 
sence of  the  truth  which  she  holds,  and  to 
which  she  bears  witness. 

The  necessity  for  such  restriction  is  seen  in 
connection  with  the  liberty  which  is  to  be  al- 
lowed by  the  Church  to  every  school  of  thought 
within  her  fold. 


RATIONALISM   VERSUS    THEISM 

The  Church  may  well  be  not  only  tol- 
erant but  vitally  sympathetic  with  the  efforts 
of  human  reason   to  comprehend  and  corre- 


204  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

late  the  truth;  she  may  insist  that  views 
that  seem  logically  contradictory  may  still  be 
inclusive  of  truth,  and  comprehended  within 
the  sphere  of  truth,  which  may  embrace  both 
conceptions,  and  much  more  than  both  concep- 
tions suggest  or  contain.  When,  however,  rea- 
son presumes  to  deny  that  which  the  Church 
exists  to  affirm ;  when  reason  asserts  that  there 
is  nothing  beyond  what  reason  sees,  and  pro- 
claims that  all  possible  phenomena  which  are 
worthy  of  credence  must  be  shown  to  conform 
to  the  laws  which  the  mind  has  already  appre- 
hended; when  reason  denies  the  supernatural, 
and  insists  upon  reducing  the  content  of  reve- 
lation to  the  test  of  the  physical  laboratory,  or 
to  the  measure  of  natural  law,  as  it  has  been 
generalised  and  formulated  by  material  science ; 
and  then  proceeds  upon  this  basis  to  deny  the 
miraculous,  and  to  repudiate  supernatural  reve- 
lation :  then  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Church, 
in  her  defence  of  the  truth,  to  protest  against 
these  unwarranted  assumptions  of  the  natural 
mind,  which  have  no  warrant  for  their  validity, 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY         205 

either  in  the  realm  of  science,  or  in  the  realms 
of  spiritual  experience.  For  her  to  embrace 
and  tolerate  teaching  which  positively  denies  or 
insidiously  undermines  the  essence  and  nature 
of  the  spiritual  truth  which  she  holds  as  being 
supernatural  and  as  transcending  material  laws 
and  rational  speculation,  would  be  to  assert 
that  she  had  no  distinctive  mission.  To  be  com- 
prehensive of  the  error  which  denies  the  es- 
sence of  the  truth  of  which  she  is  set  to  be 
the  witness,  would  be  to  forfeit  her  claim  to 
having  been  sent  from  God  to  witness  to  a 
revelation  in  human  experience  which  tran- 
scends the  bounds  of  human  reason.  She  may 
be  tolerant  of  reverent  agnosticism;  she  may 
be  tolerant  of  reverent  skepticism  in  its  search 
for  truth,  as  Christ  was  tolerant  of  the  doubt 
of  Thomas;  and  she  may  be  tolerant  of  many 
theories  which  seek  to  grasp  and  explain  the 
supernatural,  even  though  these  theories  may 
appear  contradictory.  She  cannot,  however, 
tolerate,  and  be  comprehensive  of,  the  error 
which  cuts  the  very  roots  of  the  tree  of  life 


206  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

which  she  has  been  set  to  water  and  tend,  that 
it  and  its  fruits  may  be  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations. 

MATERIALISM   VEESUS   SPIRITISM 

In  the  midst  of  a  material  world  the  Church 
of  God  has  been  set  to  be  the  sacramental  sign 
and  witness  of  the  spirit  world  that  lies  back 
of,  and  at  the  foundation  of,  things  visible  and 
temporary.  It  is  now,  and  doubtless  always 
will  be,  quite  impossible  for  the  finite  mind  to 
harmonise  completely  and  to  state  adequately 
the  exact  relation  and  perfect  balance  of 
the  interrelation  between  form  and  spirit.  The 
material  is  the  sacrament  of  the  spiritual.  It  is 
the  outward  and  visible  manifestation  of  an 
inward  and  spiritual  reality.  Life  in  and  under 
and  through  the  material  form  presents  itself 
in  us,  and  to  us,  in  all  our  divine  and  human 
relationship,  as  it  does  in  our  personal  expe- 
rience. This  fact  constitutes  the  basis  of  the 
sacramental  system  and  ritual  practice  of  the 
Church.     That  minds  should  differ  as  to  the 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY         207 

value  and  need  and  extent  to  which  the  sacra- 
mental and  ritual  element  in  the  life  of  the 
Church  should  be  emphasised,  is  natural,  and 
evidential  of  the  fact  that  the  Church  compre- 
hends within  herself  many  temperaments  of 
soul,  and  many  types  of  mind.  The  Church,  if 
she  is  wise  in  her  day  and  generation,  will  so  or- 
der the  bounds  of  her  comprehensive  sympathy 
as  to  embrace  the  personalities  which  are  ap- 
pealed to,  and  would  make  their  appeal  through 
symbol  and  sacrament,  and  who  would  use  both 
largely  as  means  for  communicating  divine  life 
and  imparting  the  truth  as  to  the  divine  nature. 
She  will  also  provide  for  making  at  home  within 
her  fold  those  to  whom  emphasised  form  and 
ceremony  is  an  obstacle  and  hindrance  to  spir- 
itual vision,  and  who  instinctively  desire  a  more 
immediate  approach  to  God  than  is  provided  in 
a  ritualistic  service. 

She  must,  however,  set  bounds  upon  them 
both  in  the  liberty  which  she  allows.  These 
limitations  should  rest  not  so  much  in  things 
prohibited  as  in  safeguarding  the  fundamental 


208  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

principles  which  it  is  her  duty  to  guard  and 
maintain. 

The  Church  may  be  ritualistic  and  yet  in- 
tensely spiritual.  There  are  many  personali- 
ties so  constituted  that  they  could  not  have 
grown  so  distinctly  spiritual  if  they  had  not 
been  aided  by  ritual  observances  in  their  ap- 
proach to  God.  The  Church,  however,  is  the 
one  institution  in  this  world  set  to  bear  witness 
to  the  Spirit  in  the  midst  of  things  material. 
If  she  becomes  materialistic,  she  forfeits  her 
right  to  bear  witness.  If  she  stoops  to  be 
flesh  in  order  to  win  the  spirit,  she  loses 
her  chance,  and  becomes  of  the  world,  which 
she  can  no  longer  save.  When  the  Church 
substitutes  the  material  for  the  spiritual,  she 
transcends  by  such  transubstantiation  her 
power,  her  right,  her  liberty  and  the  law 
of  her  life.  The  Eternal  Son  came  down, 
and  for  us  men  and  our  salvation,  was  made 
flesh,  and  in  the  form  of  our  humanity, 
dwelt  among  us,  but  this  He  did  that  He  might 
exalt  our  nature  and  make  us  sons  of  God,  and 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY         209 

partakers  with  Him  of  the  divine  nature.  He 
did  not  materialise  Himself.  He  spiritualised 
the  humanity  in  which  He  became  incarnate. 
He  took  our  nature  upon  Him,  then  through 
sacrifice,  and  the  resurrection  and  His  glorious 
ascension  He  took  it  into  the  eternal  Trinity, 
and  into  eternal  atonement  with  God.  The 
Church  must  restrict  the  liberty  of  mind  which 
ventures  to  controvert  or  deny  the  truth  in- 
herent in,  and  revealed  through  the  incarnation. 
She  cannot  suffer  those  within  her  fold  to  sub- 
stitute something  material  for  the  living  and 
ascended  and  ever-present  Christ.  She  may 
and  does  allow  men  to  exalt  the  sacrament,  and 
she  permits  them  to  hold  many  and  varied  theo- 
ries as  to  how,  in  the  sacrament,  He  is,  or  may 
be  present.  She  denies  men  the  liberty  of  sub- 
stituting a  material  thing  for  the  sacrament. 
For,  she  says,  in  doing  this,  you  overthrow  the 
very  nature  of  the  sacrament  itself.  The 
Church  not  only  has  the  right,  but  the  duty,  to 
guard  the  integrity  of  truth.  It  may  not  be  wise 
for  her  to  insist  upon  the  acceptance  of  any 


210  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

theory  as  to  how  Christ  is  present  in  the  sacra- 
ment. When  men  take  the  consecrated  ele- 
ments and  say  that  these  are  no  longer  in  any 
sense  material  elements,  as  your  senses  would 
lead  you  to  think,  but  these  are  Christ;  this 
material  substance  is  your  very  Lord,  out- 
wardly present,  and  here  to  be  gazed  upon  and 
exalted  on  the  altar,  here  to  be  reserved  that 
the  altar  may  be  sanctified  by  His  presence 
when  you  are  gone,  to  be  carried  about  as  a 
Christ  corporal,  a  Christ  that  can  be  put  into  a 
silver  box,  and  preserved  there  to  be  communi- 
cated afterward ;  this  the  Church  says  she  can- 
not understand,  and  this  theory  of  His  pres- 
ence she  has  repudiated.  The  Church  may,  per- 
haps, allow  those  whose  minds  admit  such  a 
materialised  conception  individually  to  hold  it. 
The  Church  has  the  right  and  the  duty  to  re- 
strict her  authorised  ministers  from  teaching 
this  to  her  children.  This  she  has  done.  Once 
in  her  articles  of  religion,  she  repudiated  this 
teaching,  and  forbade  it.  Immediately  subse- 
quent to  the  Eeformation,  in  Jewel's  ''Apol- 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY  211 

ogy,"  which  was  set  forth  by  Archbishop  Par- 
ker, and  published  with  the  consent  of  Convoca- 
tion, she  repudiated  this  teaching,  and  since 
then,  she  has  never,  by  any  official  sanction, 
pei-mitted  this,  which  she  regards  as  error,  to  be 
included  within  the  scope  of  what  she  regards  as 
the  liberty  of  teaching  permitted  to  the  priest- 
hood of  this  Church.  She  insists  that  the  ma- 
terial shall  not  be  substituted  for  the  spiritual. 
She  allows  wide  liberty  of  interpretation  as  to 
how  the  material  symbol  and  spiritual  and  real 
Presence  may  both  be  taken  and  received  by 
the  faithful  in  the  sacrament  of  His  Body  and 
Blood. 

It  sometimes  becomes  necessary  to  restrain 
the  lower  in  order  to  develop  the  higher  liberty. 
When  the  liberty  given  to  the  mind  is  used  to 
build  barriers  which  confine  the  spirit;  when 
the  liberty  given  to  reason  is  used  to  forge 
chains  which  shackle  faith;  when  the  lib- 
erty given  to  thought  results  in  teaching  which 
undermines  the  truth  of  revelation  and  the 
facts  of  divine  and  human  relationship,  which 


212  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

are  witnessed  to  in  human  experience,  and 
which  are  cherished  as  the  truths  distinctive  of 
the  life  of  faith  and  devotion ;  when  the  liberty 
of  interpretation  denies  the  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  truth,  and  insists  upon  substituting  a 
material  thing  for  a  spiritual  heritage, — then 
the  Church,  for  the  sake  of  souls,  for  the  sake 
of  the  faith,  and  in  the  name  of  the  truth 
for  which  she  is  the  witness,  must  deny  men 
the  liberty  to  assert  that  which  she  cannot 
include  within  her  comprehensiveness  without 
becoming  not  only  less  comprehensive  of  truth 
but  inclusive  of  distinctly  conflicting  error. 

This  must,  therefore,  of  necessity  be  her  atti- 
tude to  liberty  which  results  in  rationalism  and 
materialism. 


CONFORMITY   VERSUS   LIBERTY 

How  liberty  of  conscience  and  conformity  to 
standards  can  both  be  preserved  has  ever  been 
the  hard  problem  in  the  life  of  the  Church.  The 
spirit  is  alive  and  vital.    The  form  is  created 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY         213 

to  be  its  body,  its  means  of  expression.  The 
one  grows ;  the  other  is  officially  static  until,  by 
authority,  it  is  recast.  To  what  extent  the 
spirit  of  God,  to  what  extent  the  spirit  of  wor- 
ship has  been  trammelled  and  delimited  by  fixed- 
ness of  form  is  a  question  which  affords  ground 
for  interesting  speculation,  but  which  defies 
positive  answer.  The  value  of  corporate  wor- 
ship under  prescribed  forms,  the  advantage  of 
creating  and  maintaining  through  a  cherished 
liturgy  the  continuity  of  the  spirit  of  devotion, 
and  the  enriching  power  of  association  with 
services  long  and  devotedly  used,  doubtless 
overbalance  the  objection  to  the  limitation  of 
the  spirit  of  worship  under  the  prescribed 
forms  of  worship.  That  the  spirit  of  devotion 
often  transcends  and  outgrows  the  forms  pro- 
vided for  corporate  worship  has  been  the  rea- 
son which  has  ever  led  the  way  to  liturgical 
enrichment  in  the  Church  of  God.  It  is  always 
permissible  for  men  in  the  Church  to  feel  the 
need  for  a  larger  liberty  in  liturgical  expres- 
sion.    It  is  also  permissible  for  men  to  ask 


214  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  liberty  of  expressing  their  devotion  in  the 
corporate  life  of  the  Church  in  a  freer  expres- 
sion than  prescribed  forms  will  allow.  It  would 
be  well  for  the  Church  to  give  heed  to  every 
reasonable  demand  which  is  made  upon  her  by 
the  spirits  of  men  in  their  desire  to  worship 
God  in  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and  in  the  en- 
richment of  form,  and  in  the  freedom  of  spirit. 
She  may  well  consider  the  fact  that  tempera- 
ments radically  differ,  and  that  wide  liberty 
should  be  allowed  in  her  devotional  formularies 
and  rubrics  for  the  outgoing  heart  of  man  in 
praise,  adoration  and  petition. 

The  Church  which  gives  to  her  children  the 
right  and  the  opportunity  through  due  proc- 
esses of  legislation  to  voice  and  register  their 
desires  and  convictions,  may  reasonably  demand 
and  expect  that  her  formulas  of  devotion  will 
be  used,  and  her  rubrics  adhered  to,  pending 
the  time  when  changes  may  be  asked  for  and,  if 
reasonable,  secured.  It  should  always  be  hoped 
that  a  majority  would  not  deny  to  a  minority  of 
seekers  for  a  closer  communion  with  God  the 


llESTRICTIONS  UPON  LIBERTY         215 

liberty  of  any  reasonable  form  and  expression 
of  devotion  so  long  as  the  integrity  of  her 
liturgical  use  is  preserved  according  to  her 
direction. 

A  spiritually  disposed  Church,  and  bishops 
who  are  not  slaves  to  the  letter,  will  ever  see 
that  any  reasonable  and  spiritually  profitable 
usage  is  allowed,  if  by  it  men's  hearts  are, 
without  offence  to  others,  more  surely  and 
closely  brought  into  communion  with  God.  Uni- 
formity of  worship  is  not  nearly  so  essential 
to  the  glory  and  good  of  the  Church  as  is  a 
comprehensive  system  of  worship,  in  and  un- 
der which  men  will  be  obedient  to  law  and  sub- 
missive to  authority.  Non-conformity  allowed 
is  surely  better  than  ecclesiastical  anarchy. 
Priests  who  are  themselves  persistently  dis- 
obedient to  the  law  of  the  Church,  can  hardly, 
with  consistency,  insist  upon  the  obedience  to 
parents  and  others  in  authority,  which  is  taught 
in  the  catechism  of  the  Church.  One  would 
think  that  our  Bishops  would  gladly  welcome 
more  comprehensiveness  in  liturgical  usage  with 


216  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  hope  that,  as  Fathers  in  God,  they  would 
not  be  troubled  with  the  spirit  of  persistent 
disobedience  which  now  characterises  so  many 
of  their  priestly  children. 

The  rule  for  churchmen  with  reference  to  the 
liturgy  might  well  be: — Contend  for  liberty  if 
your  spirit  of  devotion  feels  confined,  but  obey 
the  law  while  it  lasts.  Sometimes  the  best  way 
to  get  a  law  changed  is  by  a  mutual  agreement 
to  observe  it  scrupulously.  If  everybody  breaks 
it,  the  result  is  unlicensed  non-conformity. 

Law  and  form  have  always  been  and  always 
will  be  essentially  related  to  the  survival  and 
expression  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  both  in  the 
state  and  in  the  Church.  License  of  thought 
and  expression,  while  they  have  ever  sought 
to  cloak  themselves  with  the  garb  of  liberty, 
have  ever  been  enemies  to  the  development  of 
the  true  spirit  of  freedom. 


CHAPTER  XXVn 

THE  PERILS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

rriHE  student  of  contemporaneous  religious 
-■-  life  and  thought  perceives  that  the  path 
of  progress  is  beset  with  perils.  The  dangers 
which  beset  Protestantism  are  largely  of  a  kind 
distinctly  opposite  from  those  which  beset  and 
pervert  the  mind  of  the  so-called  *' Catholic 
party'*  in  the  Church.  Protestant  weaknesses 
come  largely  from  the  over  rebound  from  the 
exclusive  claims  and  demands  of  ecclesiasti- 
cism.  In  many  instances  they  arise  from  wrong, 
or  disproportionate,  emphasis  upon  certain 
aspects  of  truth.  The  Church  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion should  be  careful  to  observe  them,  and  to 
note  the  causes  which  have  led  men  to  turn  into 
by-paths,  and,  at  times,  to  get  stuck  in  snow 
drifts,  or  to  lose  themselves  in  the  wilderness. 

217 


218  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

INDIVIDUALISTIC  SALVATION 

The  emphasis  placed  by  Protestantism  upon 
the  value  of  the  human  soul  has  not  been  too 
great.  It  has,  at  times,  been  too  exclusive. 
This  has  resulted  in  a  certain  type  of  ex- 
aggerated individualism.  The  duty  of  the  mem- 
ber to  be  in  himself  sound  and  spiritually  alive 
has  not  been  correlated  with  the  duty  of  the 
member  of  the  Body  corporate. 

The  recognition  of  this  weakness  has  in  some 
instances  led  Protestant  communions  to  over- 
emphasise social  service  as  the  cure  for  an  in- 
dividualistic conception  of  salvation.  Social 
service  sends  the  soul  out  to  find  its  corporate 
life  in  serving  social  needs.  While  this  fulfills 
in  part  the  requirement  for  the  expression  of 
the  life  that  has  been  saved  through  Christ,  it 
does  not  make  provision  for  the  sure  and  con- 
tinued salvation  of  the  life  in  Christ,  which 
comes  from  the  close  incorporation  of  the  in- 
dividual into  His  Body  through  the  constant 
use   of   the   spiritual   sacramental   system  of 


THE  PERILS  OF  PROTESTANTISM       239 

the  Church.  While  it  is  true  that  the  Church 
exists  to  save  and  to  help  the  individual,  it  is 
also  the  duty  of  the  individual  to  build  his 
personality  into  the  corporate  life  of  the 
Church,  that  the  Body  may,  through  him,  be 
made  more  strong  for  fulfilling  its  mission, 
and  in  order  that,  through  the  Body,  his  own 
life  may  daily  increase  in  that  spiritual  life 
which,  through  the  Body,  is  supplied. 

LETTING   DOWN    THE    BAES 

In  the  rebound  from  the  Church,  cumbered 
by  superadded  intensive  notes  of  dogma  and 
ritual,  there  is  the  danger  of  seeking  to  make 
the  Church  so  extensive  in  its  comprehension 
that  it  will  include,  by  invitation  and  accept- 
ance, those  who  do  not  comply  with,  because 
they  do  not  have  explained  to  them,  the  ele- 
mental and  essential  terms  of  salvation  in  and 
through  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  possible  so  com- 
pletely to  rationalise  and  despiritualise  its 
teaching  as  to  exclude  from  it  the  distinctive 


220  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  essential  notes  of  its  Christian  character 
and  divine  mission  to  men.  The  bars  may  be  let 
down  so  low  that  those  who  are  let  in  scarcely 
know  whether  they  are  on  the  inside  or  on  the 
outside.  This  is  done  when  men  are  told  that 
it  makes  no  difference  what  they  believe  if  they 
live  rightly,  as  though  men  could  live  rightly  if 
they  did  not  first  believe  aright.  This  is  done 
when  a  credal  basis  for  character  building  is  re- 
pudiated because,  perchance,  there  have  been 
those  who  have  mistaken,  and  substituted  the  in- 
tellectual acceptance  of  credal  statements  for  a 
vital  credal  faith.  This  is  done  when  Christ 
is  debased  to  the  level  of  the  power  of  the  hu- 
man reason  to  accept  Him,  and  when,  because 
there  is  no  response  of  spiritual  faith,  He  is 
offered  as  a  mere  man  (God's  best  man),  to  the 
natural  mind.  The  Unitarian  may  do  this  and 
be  consistent,  the  Christian  minister  cannot  do 
this  and  be  consistent  with,  or  loyal  to,  the 
fundamental  charter  of  the  Christian  Church 
whose  mission  is  to  preach  Christ  as  the  divine 
and  incarnate  Son  of  God. 


THE  PERILS  OP  PROTESTANTISM       221 

If  the  Bible  has  no  voice  back  of  it  save  the 
voice  of  man,  and  no  spirit  of  inspiration  save 
that  of  human  genius ;  if  Christ  be  naught  save 
an  example,  if  He  be  relegated  to  history  as 
the  world's  greatest  hero,  and  be  not  pro- 
claimed, as  He  proclaimed  Himself,  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  the  Son,  to 
whom  the  weary  and  heavy  laden  may  come  and 
find  salvation  and  power  and  peace ;  if  His  sac- 
raments are  accounted  as  meaningless  ordi- 
nances which  may  be  used  or  dispensed  with 
according  to  the  individual  whims  of  men ;  and 
if  the  Christian  ministry  be  intrusted  indiscrim- 
inately to  any  who  may  desire  to  take  this  name 
and  office  upon  themselves,  without  having  been 
called,  carefully  examined,  and,  by  recognised 
authority,  ordained ;  then  the  Christian  Church 
will  have  lost  every  note  of  authority,  and  every 
distinctive  reason  for  claiming  the  confidence, 
the  support,  and  the  following  of  men. 


222  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

THE   MATERIALISED   CHURCH 

If  there  be  reason  to  charge  that  the  Episco- 
pal Church  lays  undue  stress  and  dispropor- 
tionate emphasis  upon  her  orders,  her  forms 
and  ceremonies,  and  her  sacramental  system, 
there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  reason  to  believe 
that  Protestant  Churches,  not  of  the  Episcopal 
Order  and  Communion,  frequently  obscure  the 
spiritual  character  and  claim  of  the  Church  by 
other  exaggerated  forms  of  material  ministra- 
tion. That  the  Church  has  a  social  function 
to  perform,  is  unquestionably  true,  and  that 
the  element  of  fellowship  in  the  Episcopal 
Church  is  frequently  not  sufficiently  developed 
and  emphasised  is  true  also,  but  it  is  equally 
true  that,  in  the  practical  administration  of 
many  Protestant  organisations, the  appeal  made 
through  the  social  and  material  functions  of  the 
Church  is  so  over-emphasised  as  to  be  in  dan- 
ger of  excluding  the  emphasis  upon  the  dis- 
tinctive spiritual  claims  of  the  Church.  The 
six-day-in-the-week  gymnasium,  the  social  clubs, 


THE  PERILS  OF  PROTESTANTISM      223 

the  incessant  supping  and  dining,  the  debating 
societies,  the  before-service  supper  and  the 
after-service  tea,  the  special  music  programme, 
the  advertised  Sunday  evening  concert,  the  ap- 
peal to  curiosity  through  the  sensational  topic 
display  and  the  worshipless  character  of  many 
preaching  services,  all  tend  to  impress  the  pub- 
lic mind  with  the  idea  that  the  Church  is  panic- 
stricken,  that  it  has  lost  its  faith,  its  courage 
and  its  supreme  conviction  as  to  its  distinctive 
mission  to  witness  to  the  spiritual  truth  and 
power  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  danger  is 
that  many  will  join  the  Church  because  it  offers 
cheaper  club  and  gymnasium  and  recreation  fa- 
cilities than  they  could  get  elsewhere.  The  ex- 
cessive material  emphasis  is  not  calculated  to 
create  spiritual-mindedness.  Wliile  there  are 
circumstances  which  unquestionably  justify  the 
existence  of  the  institutional  Church,  it  is  never- 
theless true  that  the  nature  of  its  appeal  tends 
to  obscure  the  spiritual  appeal,  and  constitutes 
a  danger  which,  at  times,  rises  to  a  point  of 
peril  in  Protestant  Christianity. 


224  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

SOCIAL   SERVICE   AS   A   THING   APART 

One  of  the  distinctly  vital  and  encouraging 
phases  of  current  Church  life  is  the  emphasis 
which  is  being  placed  on  social  service.  It  is 
indicative  of  the  recognition  by  the  Church  of 
a  large  responsibility  to  serve.  It  is  the  man- 
ward  expression  of  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness. It  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  second  com- 
mandment given  by  our  Blessed  Lord,  enjoin- 
ing love  to  our  neighbour,  who  is  the  other  needy 
child  of  God. 

The  danger  in  this  realm  of  Christian  activity 
lies  in  the  possibility,  and  in  the  disposition 
sometimes  seen,  to  substitute  social  service  for 
the  corporate  worship  of  God.  The  two  duties 
are  not  antagonistic.  They  are  complementary 
to  each  other.  Worship  without  service  becomes 
formal  and  impotent.  Social  service,  without 
the  vital  background  of  spiritual  experience 
kept  alive  through  the  services  and  sacraments 
of  the  Church,  is  sure  to  become  mechanical,  per- 
functory and  void  of  constructive  and  vitalising 


THE  PERILS  OP  PROTESTANTISM       225 

spiritual  inspiration.    It  tends  to  eliminate  the 
spiritual  elements  of  personal  sympathy,  and 
the  creative  power  of  faith  and  love.    As  an  ex- 
pression of  a  divinely  kindled  desire  to  serve, 
as  the  outgoing  of  the  ever-incoming  spirit  of 
God,  as  the  translation  of  the  great  Gospel  of 
redemption  into  terms  which  are  understood  of 
men,  social  service  furnishes  a  great  liberating 
and  constructive  programme  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  is  a  distinctive 
and  indispensable  part  of  the  one  great  mission 
of  the  Church.    As  a  substitute  for  the  worship 
of  God  in  the  services  and  ordinances  of  His 
Church,  it  is  a  delusion  of  a  most  dangerous 
kind.     Reconstructed  life  must  be  built  upon 
eternal  foundations,  it  must  be  incorporated 
into  the  life  divine,  if  it  is  to  be  permanent  and 
progressive  in  the  evolution  of  the  social  order. 
There  is  always  grave  peril  of  perverting  or 
distorting  an   idea,   which,  when  held   in   its 
proper  relation  to  God  and  man,  is  fraught  with 
vast  potency  for  good. 

The  greatest  Servant  of  men  found,  and  ever 


226  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

maintained,  the  due  proportion  and  proper  bal- 
ance between  silence  with  God  and  service  to 
men.  Worship  and  work  were  inseparably 
bound  together  in  His  consciousness  of  His 
divine  relationship  and  His  human  mission. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
THE  PERIL  OF  ORDERS 

THE  human  mind  is  ever  prone  to  misuse 
the  great  gifts  of  God.  Out  of  this  dis- 
position has  grown  the  idol-worship  of  the 
world.  The  revelation,  the  instrument,  the 
means,  becomes  an  end  itself.  The  Jews  came 
to  worship  their  temple  and  their  law,  and  then 
their  idols,  and  lost  the  vision  of  God.  Until 
rebuked  and  forbidden  by  them,  the  supersti- 
tious barbarians  of  Lycaonia  would  fain  have 
worshipped  the  apostles.  The  Roman  Church 
has  deified  the  Virgin,  and  exalted  the  pope  to  a 
place  almost  co-equal  with  Christ.  Protestants 
at  times  have  made  the  letter  of  Scripture  the 
pope  of  Protestantism. 

And  what  have  we  done?    We  have  empha- 

227 


228  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sised  the  necessity  for  valid  and  regular  or- 
ders. We  have  exalted  the  sacramental  sys- 
tem of  the  Church.  We  have  capitalised  "The 
Church.*'  We  have  glorified  the  ritual  of  our 
worship.  We  have  created  what  Billy  Sunday 
asserts  is  the  best  governed  and  ordered  Church 
in  Christendom.  In  all  this  we  cannot  be  fairly 
charged  with  having  done  amiss.  But  our 
course  has  been,  and  still  is,  beset  with  perils. 
We  have  not  always  been  mindful  of  them. 
We  are  in  constant  danger  of  becoming  unmind- 
ful of  them.  The  danger  lies  in  making  an  end 
of  what  God  ordained  to  be  a  means  to  an  end. 
We  constantly  face  the  peril  of  becoming  slaves 
to  the  system  that  was  ordained  to  make  men 
free. 

The  peril  does  not  present  itself  especially 
to  the  priestly  mind.  The  danger  is  not  so 
much  that  he  will  become  a  materialist,  though 
he  sometimes  does,  but  that  the  laity  will  not 
see  through  the  form  and  system  to  the  spirit- 
ual verities  of  which  it  is  intended  to  be,  and 
really  is,  the  sign  and  symbol.     The  form  and 


THE  PERIL  OF  ORDERS  229 

ritual,  wliicli  is  intended  to  project  the  soul  into 
the  spiritual  realm,  is  in  danger  of  arresting 
the  attention  and  of  enchaining  the  soul  to  the 
over-emphasised  symbol.  The  priest  has  used 
the  organisation  in  a  way  to  make  him  recog- 
nise it  as  an  organism  into  which  he  is  incorpo- 
rated. He  has  found  every  form,  and  institu- 
tion, and  interpretation  of  his  order,  and  sacra- 
mental theory,  a  means  of  blessing  vital  and 
deeply  spiritual  for  himself.  He  magnifies  the 
importance  of  form,  he  preaches  the  Church 
persistently,  he  proclaims  as  indispensable  his 
interpretation  of  the  ordinal,  and  holds  up  the 
sacrament  to  the  gaze  of  the  people.  All  this 
the  priest  may  do  with  personal,  conscious  rev- 
erence, and  yet  be  unmindful  of  the  perils  which 
beset  his  people  by  reason  of  his  emphasis  upon 
sign  and  symbol,  and  visible  sacrament,  and 
the  ordered  succession,  and  the  Holy  Church. 

The  peril  lies  in  the  danger  that  the  people 
will  not  see  through  and  beyond.  Their  faith  is 
in  peril  of  being  arrested  by  their  senses.  It  is 
liable  to  stop  short.  It  is  prone  to  substitute  the 


230  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sign  for  the  thing  signified.  Worship  then  be- 
comes formal.  Materialism  dominates  spiritu- 
ality. The  organisation,  magnified  and  glori- 
fied, then  assumes  a  disproportionate  place  in 
the  lay  consciousness.  He  swears  by  the 
Church,  but  he  swears.  He  bows  low  before  the 
altar,  but  he  bows  lower  in  the  house  of  Rimmon, 
and  in  the  temples  of  Mammon.  He  feels  the 
glow  of  dim  religious  lights,  and  a  certain  sense 
of  sBsthetic  devotion,  and  a  dim  consciousness  of 
a  pleasing  spiritual  warmth.  He  has  touched 
the  garment  of  Christ.  That  Christ  also  by 
many  thousands  is  touched  we  know  full  well. 
But  that -there  are  perils  here  we  know  full  well 
also,  and  they  need  to  be  recognised  and  con- 
stantly guarded  against. 

Then,  too,  we  are  liable  to  put  our  trust  in  the 
power,  and  in  what  we  regard  as  the  potent  per- 
fection, of  the  organisation.  Conscious  of  our 
sure  and  certain  incorporation  into  the  Church ; 
conscious  of  its  dignity,  its  order,  its  inherent 
worth,  we  are  prone  to  delude  ourselves  with 
the  idea  that  this  in  itself  is  sufficient.    Men 


THE  PERIL  OF  ORDERS  231 

sometimes  fail,  in  their  sense  of  conscious  se- 
curity, to  realise  that  they  may  be  in  and  of 
the  Body  of  Christ  and  yet  not  of  His  mind 
and  Spirit.  Thus  they  become  paralysed  mem- 
bers of  His  Body. 

Membership  in  a  Church  so  largely  magnified 
by  its  priesthood,  so  potent  in  its  organisation, 
so  strongly  and  conspicuously  formal  and  so 
rich  in  its  symbolic  significance,  is  ever  in  dan- 
ger of  being  assumed  and  maintained  as  a  sub- 
stitute, rather  than  as  a  vital  means  of  incor- 
porating the  soul  into  union  with  the  life  of 
God,  and  into  close  fellowship  and  conscious 
communion  with  Christ  Himself.  The  term 
Churchman  is  not  always  the  synonym  of  the 
term  Christian.  The  Church  may  be  writ  large, 
and  the  Christ  be  but  faintly  inscribed  in  the 
consciousness  of  man. 

These  reflections  do  not  constitute  in  any 
sense  a  charge  against  the  Church  as  a  well- 
ordered  organism,  with  outward  and  visible 
signs  and  means  of  grace.  They  simply  point 
to  the  perils  to  which  the  priest  and  the  people, 


232  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  especially  the  people,  are  exposed  in  view 
of  the  very  perfect  nature  of  the  organisation. 
The  more  perfect  the  human  side  of  a  divine  in- 
stitution becomes,  the  more  liable  men  are  to 
substitute  it  for  the  divine.  The  glory  of  the 
temple  obscured  from  materialistic-minded  men 
the  glory  of  God.  The  perfection  of  the  man- 
hood of  our  Master  has  obscured  from  many 
minds  the  divinity  of  which  His  manhood  was 
but  the  incarnation.  The  foreground  beauty 
may  hide  the  background  life  and  glory  of 
which  it  is  the  manifestation.  The  frame  may 
be  made  so  golden,  and  so  bejewelled  that  the 
9ye  will  rest  there  and  not  see  the  beauty  of 
the  face  upon  the  canvas. 

It  is  possible  for  the  Church  to  become  so 
enamoured  of  her  orders  that  she  may  fail  to 
hear  the  orders  of  her  Lord  and  Master.  It  is 
possible  for  her  to  rest  so  surely  in  the  confi- 
dence of  her  rich  possessions,  and  glorious 
heritage,  that  she  may  fail  to  hear  the  voice 
of  her  Lord  in  the  cry  of  the  world's  need,  call- 
ing her  to  Christlike  humility  of  mind,  and  bid- 


THE  PERIL  OF  ORDERS  233 

ding  her  come  down,  as  He  did,  to  self-forgetful 
service,  to  be  misjudged  and  crucified,  that  in 
the  end  He  might  be  highly  exalted,  and  given 
a  Name  above  every  name,  and  worshipped  and 
adored  as  the  Son  of  God  who  came  down  from 
heaven  to  be  the  Saviour  and  Lord  of  men. 

We  need  to  beware  lest  our  position  of  exclu- 
sive aloofness  is  not  born  of  pride,  and  the  over- 
consciousness  of  power.  The  age  is  saying  far- 
reaching  and  deep-searching  words  about  a  new 
conception  of  divine  rights.  It  is  insisting  that 
such  claims  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  democ- 
racy, or  else  give  way  to  a  new  order  which 
shall  be  responsive  to  the  elemental  and  im- 
perious needs  of  the  children  of  God  of  love, 
and  to  the  leadership  of  His  Spirit. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

WHAT  WOULD  BECOME  OF  THE 
PRAYER  BOOK? 

THE  good  sense  of  the  Church  can  be 
trusted  to  take  care  that  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  shall  continue  to  represent  the 
normal  position  arrived  at  by  successive  genera- 
tions. This  has  always  been  the  case  in  the 
past.  If  extreme  or  radical  views  prevail  at 
any  time  and  become  embodied  in  the  authorised 
devotions  of  the  Church,  their  permanent  place 
in  the  liturgy  will  depend  upon  the  test  of  their 
permanent  worth  in  the  experience  of  a  living 
Church.  There  is  no  reason  for  one  generation 
to  become  panic-stricken  because  of  innovations 
or  restrictions  or  alterations  in  the  devotional 
expressions  of  the  liturgy.    The  ship  has  passed 

234 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK  235 

through  seas  as  rough  and  storms  as  violent 
as  any  which  are  apt  to  lie  ahead.  If  there  be 
tempests  that  are  worse,  which  must  yet  be  met, 
we  may  be  very  sure  that,  if  Christ  remains  at 
the  helm,  we  will  come  to  the  haven  where  He 
would  have  us  be.  If  He  be  forced  to  leave 
the  helm  by  our  insisting  upon  steering  the 
ship,  then  the  sooner  she  founders  the  better. 

We  should  by  all  means  make  His  task  as 
easy  as  we  can.    There  are  surely  none  in  the 
Church  who  would  deliberately  plan  to  do  other- 
wise.   We  should  more  largely  trust  each  other, 
and  more  earnestly  endeavour  to  prove  our- 
selves worthy  of  trust.    By  fairness  and  con- 
sideration; by  forbearance  and  self-restraint; 
by    honest    candour    of    speech    and   humility 
of  mind  and  heart;  by  seeking  to  keep  every 
avenue  of  approach  to  God  widely  open,  and 
thus  refusing  to  lend  our  voice  and  influence 
to  close  any  channel  of  grace  through  which 
divine  love  flows  into  human  life;  by  thinking 
more  humbly  and  loving  more  comprehensively ; 
we  will  come  into  the  possession  of  the  spirit 


236  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  power  and  of  a  sound  mind,  that  will  en- 
able us  to  perceive  and  know  what  we  ought 
to  do  in  providing  for  the  expression  of  the 
faith  and  devotion  of  the  people  of  God. 

In  this  Church  the  people  have  a  large  voice. 
Their  influence  for  restraint  is  final  and  all  pow- 
erful. The  laity  have  the  power  of  veto  over  all 
legislation  in  this  Church,  so  that  nothing  can 
be  consummated  in  the  way  of  change  or  addi- 
tion which  does  not  commend  itself  to  their 
judgment.  As  a  class  they  deplore  religious 
controversy.  It  is  usually  the  priests,  rather 
than  the  people,  who  agitate  for  radical  changes 
in  doctrinal  statements  and  devotional  expres- 
sion. The  average  layman  is  content,  if  he  comes 
to  Church  at  all,  to  say  the  creed  which  the 
Church  has  formulated,  and  to  use  the  liturgy 
which  the  Church  has  sanctioned,  if  it  is  said 
with  a  spirit  of  devotion,  and  in  a  voice  that  can 
be  clearly  understood  by  the  people.  The  tem- 
pests of  controversy  which  sweep  through 
Church  papers  and  stir  priestly  minds  to  foam- 
ing and  seething  agitation,  either  do  not  stir 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK  237 

the  laity  very  deeply,  or  stir  them  to  the  ex- 
pression of  deep  regret  that,  with  so  many 
vital  and  pressing  problems  to  face,  the  Church 
should  waste  so  much  energy  in  internecine  war- 
fare, and  in  the  bitterness  of  partisan  strife. 

The  laity  is  led  to  wonder  if  perhaps  too  much 
time  is  not  being  spent  in  seminaries  in  teaching 
men  to  split  hairs  rather  than  in  training  them 
to  be  strong  to  level  mountains,  and  prepare 
the  way  for  the  larger  and  fuller  coming  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  DEFENCE  AND  THE  EXEMPLIFI- 
CATION OF  THE  POWER  OF  ORDERS 

IN  aU  that  has  been  said,  we  have  not  been 
unmindful  of  the  necessity  of  preserving 
unimpaired  the  historic  heritage  of  this  branch 
of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.  The  preserva- 
tion through  centuries  of  trial  of  the  unbroken 
continuity  of  the  threefold  orders  of  ministry 
has  had,  and  must  continue  to  have,  a  witness- 
bearing  power  in  the  Body  of  Christ. 
When  we  consider  that  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  was  instituted  and  ordered  to  be  per- 
petuated prior  to  the  time  when  the  New  Tes- 
tament was  written  in  any  of  its  parts;  when 
we  recall  that  the  ministry  was  appointed  to  be 
the  custodian,  the  guardian,  and  the  witness  of 

238 


THE  POWER  OF  ORDERS  239 

tlie  truth ;  when  we  consider  the  credence  given 
by  continuity  to  the  genuineness  and  authentic- 
ity of  the  written  revelation,  and  the  practical 
experience  of  man  in  his  relationship  with  God 
under  the  terms  of  the  New  Covenant  promise, 
we  are  deeply  conscious  of  the  supreme  obliga- 
tion to  be  faithful  to  this  transmitted  trust. 

While  we  have  no  right  to  give  away  what  is 
not  ours  to  dispense  with  save  upon  the  terms 
and  conditions  which  will  secure  the  continued 
and  lawful  transmission  of  the  trust,  we  have 
not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  also,  to  use  the 
trust  in  the  service  for  righteousness  in  such 
a  way  as  will  add  to  its  value  in  the  largest  pos- 
sible measure.  To  hold  the  trust  and  add  to  it 
ten  talents  besides,  is  the  kind  of  stewardship 
which  this  Church  should  seek  to  exercise. 

There  is  need  in  the  Church  for  those  who  will 
stand  by  this  central  stake  and  defend  it,  and 
drive  it  in  deep,  and  make  it  permanently  se- 
cure. There  is  the  same  kind  of  need  that  this 
should  be  done  as  there  is  that  the  centripetal 
force  in  the  universe  should  be  preserved.    In 


240  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

the  light  of  this  illustration,  it  is  instinctively 
seen  that  the  living  Christ  is  of  course  the  great 
centripetal  force  of  the  Church,  but  we  are 
speaking  now  of  the  organic  life  of  the  Church, 
and  here,  also,  the  principle  is  true. 

The  defenders  of  the  central  stake  in  the  or- 
ganisation must  in  all  candour  recognise  that 
the  need  for  its  security  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
cords  must  be  pulled  far  and  lengthened.  They 
must  not  insist  that  the  tent  cords  be  tightly 
wrapped  around  the  central  pole.  The  fact 
that  they  are  allowed  to  be  carried  far  by  those 
who  would  make  the  tent  covering  very  wide 
spread  and  comprehensive,  shows  the  confidence 
imposed  by  them  in  the  pole  at  the  centre  to 
stand  the  strain.  If  the  men  who  would  fain 
carry  the  cords  very  far  afield  seem  to  those 
at  the  centre  pole  to  be  running  riot,  or  depart- 
ing too  far  afield,  let  it  be  remembered  that 
they  do  so  because  of  their  supreme  trust  in 
the  strength  of  the  central  stake  to  stand  the 
strain.  If  those  at  the  stake  will  not  go  forth 
with  those  who  run  with  the  cords  to  lengthen 


THE  POWER  OF  ORDERS  241 

them  far,  let  it  be  recognised  that  they  remain 
at  their  task  of  defending  the  stake,  that  it  may 
not  be  pulled  up  and  carried  away  by  the  cord 
lengtheners.  The  centrifugal  force  is  safe  and 
constant  only  so  long  as  the  power  which  holds 
things  to  the  centre  is  preserved  and  exercised. 
We  need  each  other.  We  need  the  stake.  We 
need  the  lengthened  cord.  The  world's  need 
calls  for  a  wide-stretched  tabernacle.  Keep  the 
central  stake  strong  and  fast.  Trust  the  cord 
lengtheners  to  exercise  the  faith  that  they  feel 
in  knowing  that  things  at  the  centre  are  guarded 
and  kept  so  secure  that  they  are  not  afraid  of 
uprooting  the  stake  by  largely  lengthening  the 
cords.  We  should  not  call  by  ill-sounding  names 
those  who  feel  called  of  God  to  keep  guard  at 
the  centre,  and  who  labour  to  keep  the  stake 
well  grounded  in  the  ancient  truth.  They  surely 
should  not  call  those  disloyal  who  show  such 
supreme  faith  in  the  stake  at  the  centre,  that 
they  are  willing  to  tie  their  cords  around  the 
hearts  of  men  far  removed,  and  entwine  the  out- 
stretched cords  about  the  forces  of  righteous- 


242  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ness  everywhere,  and  even  venture  to  cast  a 
life  line  into  the  teeth  of  the  tempest,  and  out 
upon  the  darkness  of  the  sea  to  the  ship  disabled 
because  they  believe  that  the  stake  divinely  set 
and  guarded  by  faithful  men  will  hold  fast  at 
the  centre.  What  is  needed  in  the  Church  is 
the  larger  confidence  which  should  be  felt  among 
men  who  are  brothers  and  builders  together 
of  the  tabernacle  of  God  among  men. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

WHAT  WE  MAY  AND  WHAT  WE  CAN- 
NOT HOLD 

WE  may  hold  our  theories.  We  may  tena- 
ciously hold  to  exclusive  interpretations 
of  our  orders  and  sacraments.  We  may  hold 
to  the  determination  to  magnify  the  outward, 
the  formal,  the  material  side  of  the  Church. 
We  may  hold  to  our  insistence  upon  the  su- 
preme importance  of  a  perfected  organisation 
to  be  maintained  and  consummated  at  any  cost. 
We  may  hold  to  our  exclusive  titles,  and  to 
our  exclusive  claims,  and  to  our  exclusive  po- 
sition. But  we  cannot  hold  the  people  if  we 
emphasise  these  things  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
spiritual  appeal  and  the  spiritual  gifts. 

The  deep  heart  of  humanity  feels,  and,  at 
times,  clearly  sees,  the  nature  and  quality  and 

243 


244  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

richness  of  its  birthright.  The  thirst  for  God 
is  imperious.  The  longing  for  the  conscious- 
ness of  communion  with  Him,  and  for  the  pos- 
session of  His  love  and  His  power  and  His 
healing,  cleansing  life  is  ever  present,  though, 
at  times,  obscured  in  the  soul. 

The  appealing  power  of  Moody  and  of  Billy 
Sunday  over  multitudes  of  men,  and  the  grow- 
ing strength  of  the  distinctly  spiritual  appeal 
and  spiritual  emphasis  of  Christian  Science,  are 
both  distinct  evidences  of  the  power  of  the  peril 
which  inheres  in  the  tendency  to  materialise 
and  secularise  the  Church,  and  bear  witness  to 
the  peril  of  substituting  in  the  minds  of  our 
people  the  form,  the  order,  and  the  organisa- 
tion in  place  of  the  living,  vital  witness  to  the 
personal  saving  and  healing  Christ. 

If  there  should  be  placed  a  more  insistent  and 
definite  emphasis  upon  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and 
less  upon  the  form  of  the  Church;  if  in  place 
of  magnifying  the  organisation,  we  should  con- 
secrate ourselves  to  spiritualise  more  deeply  the 
individual  and  the  Church  as  a  vital  organism; 


WHAT  WE  MAY  AND  CANNOT  HOLD   245 

if  we  should  become  less  exclusive  in  our  con- 
sciousness and  more  responsive  to  the  oppor- 
tunities for  service,  more  deeply  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  love  and  fellowship,  and  more  will- 
ing to  vindicate  our  orders  and  organisation  by 
using  them  in  co-operation  with  other  forces  of 
God's  constituted  Kingdom,  is  there  not  every 
reason  found  in  the  revelation  of  the  mind  and 
purpose  of  Christ  to  believe  that  He  will  be 
true  to  His  promise  that  against  His  Church  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail? 

Having  for  so  long  pursued  the  course  of  an 
exclusive  claim  and  of  an  isolated  position,  it 
might  be  well  for  this  Church  to  try  the  experi- 
ment of  following  the  Master,  with  those  others 
whom  He  is  leading,  into  a  more  vital  and  spirit- 
ual co-operative  effort  to  inspire  the  minds  of 
men  and  the  ideals  of  nations,  that  they  be  no 
longer  conformed  to  the  standards  of  the  world, 
but  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  the  spirit 
of  the  living  God. 

In  doing  this  the  Church  would  doubtless  win 
and    hold    a    larger   following    of    spiritually 


246  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

minded  men,  and  the  larger  fruitage  wihioh 
would  be  gathered  from  the  harvest  fields  of  the 
world  would  more  largely  com  mend  our  orders 
to  the  consideration  and  esteem  of  those  who 
will  increasingly  turn  to  those  things  which 
have  manifested  their  worth  and  power  in  the 
practical  and  vital  experience  of  the  Church. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
ANCIENT  LANDMARKS 

BY  some  it  will  be  charged  that  in  what  is 
being  contended  for  we  are  removing  an- 
cient landmarks.  There  are  Biblical  injunc- 
tions against  doing  this.  This  is  unquestion- 
ably true.  These  injunctions,  however,  were 
pronounced  against  those  who  sought,  by  re- 
moving ancient  landmarks,  to  delimit  the  pos- 
sessions, and  infringe  upon  the  inheritance 
rights  of  other  tribes  in  the  Covenant  Kingdom 
We  would  disclaim  any  intention  of  doing  this 
with  the  landmarks  of  either  truth  or  Church 
polity. 

The  Church  may  well  pause  to  ask  if  the 
landmarks  hitherto  set  by  her  do  mark  aright 
the  scope  of  the  spiritual  inheritance  of  the  chil- 

247 


248  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

dren  of  the  Christian  covenant  promise.  Christ 
found  them  set  to  bounds  that  had  been  made 
too  narrow,  and  removed  them  to  mark  the 
bounds  of  a  Church  more  comprehensive.  And 
in  the  hole  from  which  He  had  removed  the 
landmark  of  tradition,  they  set  up  a  cross, '  *  and 
there  they  crucified  Him."  It  is  well,  also,  to 
bear  in  mind  that  the  men  who  doomed  Him  to 
death  were  led  by  the  High  Priest  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal "orthodoxy.'* 


PAET  m 
CONFERENCE— CO-OPERATION— UNITY 

*'0h,  like  to  the  greatness  of  God  is  the  great- 
ness within 

The  range  of  the  marshes,  the  liberal  marshes 
of  Glynn/' 

***** 

**Te  marshes,  how  candid  and  simple  and  noth- 
ing-withholding and  free 
Ye  publish  yourselves  to  the  sky  and  offer  your- 
selves to  the  sea!'' 

***** 

"And  the  sea  lends  large,  as  the  marsh:  lo,  out 

of  his  plenty  the  sea 
Pours  fast:" 

***** 

*'Till  his  tvaters  have  flooded  the  uttermost 

creeks  and  the  low-lying  lanes, 
And  the  marsh  is  meshed  with  a  million  veins. 
The  creeks  overflow:  a  thousand  rivulets  run 
'Twixt  the  roots  of  the  sod;  the  blades  of  the 
marsh-grass  stir;" 

***** 

**And  the  sea  and  the  marsh  are  one.'* 

Sidney  Lanier. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
ARE  WE  PREPARED? 

FOR  many  years  the  Christian  Church 
prayed  for  an  open  door  into  heathen 
lands.  At  last  the  door  was  opened.  From  be- 
yond it  came  the  voices  of  millions  lying  in  dark- 
ness, saying,  ''Come  over  and  help  us."  Ma- 
terialism, parochialism  and  selfishness  gripped 
and  enchained  the  heart  of  the  Church,  and  the 
doors  opened  by  prayer  have  not  been  entered 
yet  by  a  Church  passing  through  them  with  gar- 
ments dyed  in  the  blood  of  her  own  priestly 
sacrifice.  Through  open  doors  still  come  the 
cries  of  the  Father's  children  in  the  deep  dark- 
ness. They  are  crying  for  light.  From  the 
silence  of  the  sanctuary  into  which  He  passed 
through  sacrifice,  there  comes  a  voice  which  asks 

251 


252  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

why,  having  so  long  prayed,  stand  ye  here  so 
long  idle  before  the  door  which  I  have  opened 
to  you? 

For  many  years  the  Church  has  prayed,  as 
her  Master  prayed,  that  they  all  might  be  one. 
Intercessions  have  been  offered  for  an  open 
door  to  unity.  Wider  to-day  than  ever  before 
the  door  stands  open.  Are  we  prepared  to  enter 
in?  It  does  not  open  into  a  unity  perfected  and 
immediate  in  its  organic  completeness.  It  is 
open,  however,  to  avenues  of  approach.  Ways 
that  lead  to  fellowship  and  understanding,  and 
to  a  sympathetic  appreciation  of  each  other's 
view  points,  are  ways  that  lead  to  ultimate 
unity.  There  are  many  who  feel  convinced 
that  they  are  the  only  ways  lit  by  the  light  of 
a  reasonable  hope. 

The  Church  that  refuses  to  give  official  sanc- 
tion to  those  of  her  communion  who  feel  that 
they  see  this  open  door,  and  are  assured  that 
they  hear  the  Spirit's  voice  calling  them,  as- 
sumes a  grave  responsibility.  If  to  invitations 
and  opportunities  for  official  and  corporate  co- 


ARE  WE  PREPARED?  253 

operation,  to  be  engaged  in  by  those  who  are 
willing  and  desirous  of  doing  so,  the  Church 
turns  a  deaf  ear,  she  will  most  surely  prejudice 
the  great  Protestant  Communions  against  the 
sincerity  and  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  prompts 
her  to  suggest  discussions  and  conferences  on 
' '  faith  and  order. ' '  Why  should  not  the  Protes- 
tant Communions  make  reasonable  reply  that 
they  would  not  care  to  consider  or  accept  orders 
so  exclusive  and  binding  as  to  preclude  confer- 
ence and  co-operation  with  other  members  of 
the  Body  of  Christ  living  in  non-conformity, 
but  living  still  in  vital  union  with  Jesus  Christ? 

The  world  crisis  demands  spiritual  leader- 
ship. We  know  not  what  to-morrow  has  in 
store.  Orders  have  proven  no  barrier  to  blood- 
shed. Greek  and  Romanist  are  fighting  each 
other.  Romanists  are  fighting  Romanists,  and 
Protestants  are  fighting  Protestants  and  fight- 
ing with  Romanists  and  fighting  against  them. 
There  is  chaos  in  the  world. 

In  America,  official  corruption,  and  indus- 
trial enmity,  and  greed  and  materialism  are 


254  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

rampant.  Has  the  Church  failed!  She  has 
surely  failed  to  put  her  emphasis  on  the  right 
things,  or  in  the  right  proportion.  She  has 
failed  in  vision,  and  in  statesmanship  and  in 
power.  She  has  failed  to  measure  up  to  her 
high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus.  She  has  come  to 
judgment.  She  has  not  come  to  her  doom. 
She  can  point  to  many  achievements.  Because 
of  her  ministry  there  is  a  keener  conscience  and 
a  closer  brotherhood  among  men.  The  world 
to-day  is  more  easily  shocked  because  stand- 
ards are  higher.  In  private  and  public  life 
ideals  of  a  nobler  kind  are  leading  men  into  a 
richer  and  more  abundant  life.  In  spite  of 
her  materialism  and  blindness,  the  Christ, 
through  His  Church,  has  still  been  able  to  say 
and  do  many  things. 

In  the  presence  of  stupendous  problems,  and 
face  to  face  with  the  day  of  her  greatest  op- 
portunity, the  Church,  divided,  stands  to-day 
impotent  for  her  task. 

Barriers  of  separation  built  by  incompetent 
and  inadequate  thought-processes,  created  by 


ARE  WE  PREPARED?  255 

ancient  prejudices,  and  erected  by  mental  and 
finite  interpretations  of  the  great  uninterpret- 
able,  eternal  truth  of  God,  divide  the  Church, 
and  weaken  her  power  to  witness,  and  her  ca- 
pacity to  lead  men  and  nations  into  liberty. 

In  the  presence  of  our  self-created  weakness ; 
with  the  memory  of  our  failures  and  shortcom- 
ings; conscious  as  we  must  be  of  having  done 
many  things  amiss,  and  left  undone  many  things 
which  might  have  helped  to  heal  His  broken 
and  divided  Body;  shall  not  we  who  profess  and 
call  ourselves  Christians  turn  in  these  days 
from  endless  and  formal  academic  discussions 
to  penitential  litanies,  and  ask  God  to  have 
mercy  upon  us  and  to  forgive? 

Is  it  not  a  time  for  humility  of  mind  and 
contriteness  of  heart!  Is  it  a  time  for  men  of 
a  common  faith  and  a  common  purpose  to  stand 
apart?  Shall  cold  stone  barriers  of  logical 
conviction  stem  and  hinder  the  flow  of  the  spirit 
of  Christian  fellowship  and  the  largest  possible 
measure  of  Christian  conference  and  co-opera- 
tion I 


256  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

What  would  happen  if  our  Bishops  should 
unite  in  calling  all  Christian  communions  in 
America  who  would  heed  the  call  into  a  great 
representative  conference;  saying: — '* Brethren, 
come,  let  us  go  up  into  the  mount  of  the  Lord 
and  pray  and  reason  together.  Our  sins  have 
been  as  scarlet,  yet  He  will  have  mercy  and  for- 
give. The  world  is  calling  us.  Christ  is  calling 
us.  Let  us  not  in  this  great  crisis  moment  stand 
divided.  We  are  one  Body  in  Christ,  and  one 
in  essential  faith,  and  one  in  charity.  Let  us 
take  counsel  together.  Let  us  ask  Him,  who 
is  our  common  Lord  and  Master,  what  word 
He  would  speak  through  us  to  this  nation  and 
to  the  nations  of  the  world.  Let  us,  with  an 
apostolic  spirit,  say,  *  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have 
us  do?'  and  rising  from  a  national  council  of 
penitence  and  prayer,  let  us  follow  Him  who 
has  promised  to  be  with  us  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  and  to  lead  us  into  all  truth.  Come! 
that  through  us,  His  Body,  He  may  speak  His 
message,  and  work  His  will  in  this  crisis  of  the 
world.'* 


CHAPTER  XXXrV 

THE  CHALLENGE 

Tpi^OBLEMS  face    us  stupendous  in    their 
A    character  and  extent.     Great  questions  of 
education,  of  social  service,  of  missionary  en- 
devour,  of  healing  the  breach  among  the  na- 
tions, of  establishing  a  just  and  abiding  peace, 
press  for  solution.    Ignorance,  social  injustice, 
nations  waiting  to  be  born,  and  nations  waiting 
to  be  led  into  a  great  world  federation,  cry  aloud 
to  a  divided  Church  for  light,  and  love,  and 
liberty,  and  guidance.    What  shall  we  do  about 
it?     A  great  oncoming  wave  of  democracy  is 
sweeping  up  and  onward  in  the  sea  of  life.  Back 
of  it  are  great  elemental  impulses,  longings,  de- 
sires and  hopes.    Greatest  among  them  is  the 
impulse  of  liberty,  the  search  for  truth,  the 

257 


258  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

undefined,  vague,  and  unsatisfied  longing  for 
God. 

In  this  approaching  crisis  what  shall  be  the 
attitude  of  this  Church?  Shall  we  stand  apart? 
Are  our  orders  so  uncertain  that  we  dare  not 
confer  and  co-operate,  with  full  official  sanction, 
with  those  whose  orders  are  different  in  every 
respect  from  our  own,  for  fear  that  our  orders 
will  be  compromised,  or  that  we  will  be  mis- 
understood ? 

Are  we  sufficiently  sure  that  His  promise  to 
**be  with  the  ministers  of  apostolic  succession" 
was  a  promise  also  not  to  be  with  the  ministers 
who  are  not  of  the  apostolic  succession  as  we 
define  it?  Are  we  sure  that  He  is  not  with 
them?  If  He  is,  why  should  we  not  be?  Are  we 
more  sacred  in  our  orders,  and  more  exclusive 
in  our  fellowship,  than  is  He  from  whom  our 
orders  are  derived,  and  from  whom  they  have 
their  authority?  Do  we  doubt  His  promise? 
If  He  will  indeed  be  with  the  ministers  of 
apostolic  succession  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
will  He  not  also  guard  and  keep  the  succession 


THE  CHALLENGE  259 

if  the  orders  sanctioned  by  it  confer,  co-operate, 
and  hold  Christian  fellowship  with  those  with 
whom  He  Himself  confers,  co-operates  and 
holds  close  fellowship  and  communion? 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
*'THE  CHURCH"  AND  '^THIS  CHURCH" 

OUR  Church  standards  speak  very  definite- 
ly as  to  what  is  required  of  her  children, 
and  of  those  who  are  authorised  to  officiate  as 
her  ministers.  In  the  preface  to  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  and  in  the  preface  to  the  Ordinal, 
she  is  careful  to  state  that  her  legislative  acts 
and  standard  requirements  are  applicable  to 
what  she  distinctly  and  repeatedly  calls  ^Hhis 
Church."  There  is  no  question  as  to  the 
kind  of  ordination  she  requires  of  those  who 
are  to  ''be  accounted  and  taken  to  be  a  lawful 
Bishop,  Priest  and  Deacon  in  this  Church." 
The  words  ^'in  this  Church/'  express  no  opin- 
ion whatsoever  as  to  who  are  accounted  lawful 
ministers  hy  this  Church,  in  so  far  as  their 

260 


"THE  CHURCH"  AND  "THIS  CHURCH"     261 

ministry  is  to  other  communions  of  the  Body 
of  Christ.  In  the  service  for  the  ordering  of 
Priests,  the  Bishop  says,  ''Take  thou  authority 
to  execute  the  office  of  a  Priest  in  the  Church  of 
God.^^  Authority  is  thereby  given  to  the  min- 
isters ordained  by  and  in  and  for  this  Church 
to  preach  and  administer  the  sacraments  in  any 
branch  or  communion  of  "the  Church  of  God" 
where  occasion  may  offer. 

The  term  "the  Church"  is  of  broader  sig- 
nificance than  the  term  "this  Church."  "This 
Church"  is  but  a  part  of  "the  Church"  catho- 
lic. What  then  are  the  other  parts?  Those 
who  make  the  distinguishing  testing  note  and 
standard  of  measurement  the  apostolic  succes- 
sion, would  answer,  the  Church  of  England,  of 
Rome,  the  Eastern  Clmrch,  and  other  com- 
munions which  hold  to,  and  have  come  down 
through,  the  unbroken  succession.  Beyond  this 
point  questions  arise.  By  some  in  this  Church, 
other  names  are  applied  to  Christians  in  fellow- 
ship with  each  other,  who  have  not  the  ministry 
of  succession  as  it  is  by  some  defined.     It  is 


262  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

claimed  that,  because  this  distinctive  and  es- 
sential note  is  lacking,  they  are  not  to  be  in- 
cluded as  being  of  *'the  Church.'* 

This  Church  has,  through  her  House  of 
Bishops,  declared  to  the  contrary,  and  has  pro- 
nounced it  as  her  conviction  that  all  who  have 
been  baptised  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son 
and  Holy  Ghost  are  to  be  accounted  members 
of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.* 

*  See  General  Convention  Journal  1886. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION 

"rriHE  individual,"  says  Albert  Kocourek, 
-i.  Professor  of  Jurisprudence  in  North- 
western University,  ''is  rapidly  on  the  way  to 
the  loss  of  his  identity,"  Society  is  becoming- 
more  and  more  highly  organised.  Thought  to- 
day is  everywhere  testing  itself  out  in  confer- 
ence. It  is  seeking  to  combine  with  other 
thought.  Action  seeks  to  express  itself  in  co- 
operation. Most  of  the  world's  work  is  being 
done  in  and  through  boards,  committees  and 
commissions,  and  in  various  other  forms  of 
corporate  endeavour.  The  condition  was  not 
created  by  the  Church.  It  is  a  sociological  de- 
velopment. There  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  tendency  is  not  transient  but  perma- 

263 


264  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

nent  and  progressive.  In  so  far  as  this  Church 
is  possessed  of  wisdom,  and  considered  to  have 
right  judgment,  this  wisdom  and  judgment  will 
be  sought  by  others  who  have,  with  us,  a  com- 
mon purpose  and  a  common  ideal  in  matters 
pertaining  to  the  social  welfare  and  to  the 
extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Invita- 
tions and  opportunities  will  come  with  in- 
creasing frequency  to  this  Church  to  enter  into 
conference  and  co-operative  relation  with 
others. 

The  issue  cannot  be  met  by  leaving  the  re- 
sponsibility to  the  individual.  The  Church,  un- 
less she  desires  to  become  and  to  be  considered 
archaic,  must  face  the  conditions  under  which 
life  about  her  everywhere  is  seeking  self-ex- 
pression. She  must  determine  upon  a  policy, 
and  come  to  a  decision  upon  certain  questions 
of  principle. 

Now  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  necessity 
for  doing  so  does  not  arise  from  the  demands 
of  restless-minded  individuals  here  and  there  in 
the  Church,  but  rather  from  the  conditions  un- 


CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION     265 

der  which  life  about  us  everywhere  is  seeking 
to  express  itself  in  terms  of  efficiency. 

To  say  that  we  have  gone  all  these  years  with- 
out a  fixed  policy,  and  have  avoided  bringing 
the  question  to  an  issue,  is  no  reason,  and  offers 
no  avenue  of  escape  for  avoiding  a  responsi- 
bility which  rises  up  out  of  the  evolution  of  the 
social  order,  and  politely,  but  insistently,  asks 
us,  what  we  are  going  to  do  about  it?  The  Apos- 
tles did  not  have  Cathedral  cars,  but  some  of 
their  successors  have  had  the  wisdom  to  adapt 
the  Church's  ministrations  to   modern  condi- 
tions, and  to  use  new  material  forces,  as  we  are 
called  to  use  the  spiritual  forces  about  us,  to 
extend  the  kingdom  of  Christ.    There  are  those 
in  this  Church  who  believe  with  a  deep  convic- 
tion that  this  Church  is  called  to  fulfill  her  di- 
vinely given  mission  by  using  these  opportuni- 
ties, when  presented,  to  help  supply  the  great 
need  for  spiritualising  and  wisely  directing  this 
growing  sense  of  corporate  responsibility,  and 
this  ever-deepening  consciousness  of  civic,  na- 
tional, and  international,  as  well  as  spiritual 


266  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

responsibility.  This  conviction  is  not  bom  of  dis- 
loyalty ;  nor  is  it  the  effervescence  of  a  wild  or 
unbalanced  enthusiasm.  It  is  a  conviction  born 
of  a  love  for  the  Church,  and  of  a  supreme  con- 
fidence in  her  ability  to  hold  her  own,  and  jus- 
tify, in  the  realm  of  conference  and  co-oper- 
ative relationship,  the  worth  of  her  balanced 
tenure  of  truth,  faith  and  order.  It  is  a  con- 
viction spiritually  related  to  a  certain  and  sure 
sense  of  responsibility  with  reference  to  bap- 
tismal, confirmation  and  ordination  vows,  and 
to  the  vision  and  consciousness  of  power  which 
come  from  bringing  the  soul  in  touch  with 
Him  in  the  sacrament  of  His  Body  and  Blood, 
and  to  the  consciousness  bom  from  listening 
to  the  call  of  Christ  in  the  great  Gospel  of  re- 
demption, read  and  preached  in  this  Church. 

Those  who  do  not  feel  and  see  and  know  the 
depth  of  this  conviction,  and  the  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility, which  many  priests  and  laymen  in 
this  Church  are  feeling  to-day  with  reference 
to  this  subject,  should  reverently  and  seriously 
consider  the  consequences  which  must  follow  if, 


CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION      267 

by  legislation,  this  conviction,  this  conscious- 
ness of  responsibility,  this  conscience,  which  has 
not  grown  without  earnest  prayer,  is  throttled, 
and  this  liberty  denied. 

It  must  be  admitted  and  remembered  that 
these  priests  and  laymen  came  into  this  Church 
through  baptism  and  confirmation,  and  into 
her  ministry  through  ordination,  convinced,  as 
they  still  are,  that  this  liberty  would  not  be 
questioned  or  denied.  It  should  be  recognised, 
also,  that  they  have  the  same  right  to  ask  the 
assent  of  the  Church  to  the  expression  of  their 
views  through  this  Church,  as  those  of  contrary 
opinion  have  to  ask  that  they  be  not  required 
to  engage  in  such  conference  and  co-operative 
relationship  as  is  contrary  to  their  convic- 
tion. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  seminaries  in  this 
Church,  ever  held  in  honourable  esteem,  have 
never  taught  any  theory  of  orders  which  would 
preclude  such  conference  and  co-operative  re- 
lationship ;  and  that  among  the  earliest  bishops 
of  this  Church  in  America  the  right  and  duty 


268  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  such  co-operation  was  held  and  expressed.* 

The  issue  is  forced  by  those  who  deny  the 
right,  not  by  those  who  ask  to  be  permitted  to 
continue  to  exercise  it. 

The  question  having  been  raised,  it  must  of 
necessity  be  settled.  That  it  was  raised  is  due 
to  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  To 
have  avoided  it  would  have  been  quite  impos- 
sible. To  evade  it  is  also  impossible.  We 
should  pray  for  a  right  judgment,  asking  for 
freedom  from  prejudice,  and  for  the  gift  of 
patience,  and  of  courtesy  and  humility,  and  do 
what  seems  to  be  our  duty  to  Christ  and  His 
Church. 

We  may  make  mistakes  if  we  go  ahead.  •  We 
will  surely  make  a  mistake  if  we  do  not.  The 
age  calls  us.    We  must  face  the  call. 

First,  it  would  seem  that  the  right  of  free- 
conference,  without  co-operation,  and  without 
assessment  for  expense,  should  be  granted  to 
all  organisations  and  commissions  officially  con- 
stituted in  this  Church.     Their  desire  to  use 

•  See  biographies  of  Bishop  White  and  Bishop  Moore. 


CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION      269 

every  opportunity  to  seek  and  know  the  truth, 
come  whence  it  may,  should  be  by  permission 
accorded.  The  Church  and  the  world  are  both 
wiser  and  better  from  the  knowledge  of  truth 
revealed  out  of  the  conference  which  Christ 
held  in  the  wilderness  with  the  Devil,  and  surely 
this  Church  will  never  be  called  to  confer  with 
any  whose  position  is  more  unchurchly  than  was 
Satan's. 

With  reference  to  the  question  of  co-opera- 
tion, there  are  more  serious  difficulties.  They 
should  be  candidly  faced,  and  thoughtfully  and 
prayerfully  considered. 

The  sanction  of  the  General  Church  could 
doubtless  be  secured  without  opposition,  to  the 
appointment  of  a.  commission  to  confer  and  co- 
operate in  matters  of  civic  and  moral  concern 
and  upon  questions  of  national  and  interna- 
tional peace  and  politics.  To  co-operate  with 
men  and  ministers  in  these  matters  would  in- 
volve no  peril  to  any  theory  of  orders. 

Permission  could  also  be  given,  without  con- 
troversy, to  official  boards  and  commissions  to 


270  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

confer  and  co-operate  with  other  men  and  min- 
isters relative  to  a  national  or  international 
provision  for  extending  to  heathen  lands  the 
ministry  of  healing.  Hospitals  at  home  are 
built,  supported  and  administered  by  Christian 
men  of  all  communions  without  the  question  of 
orders  being  raised.  Why  the  question  should 
be  injected  into  hospital  extension  in  the  mis- 
sion field  is  not  apparent.  Presbyterian  and 
Episcopal  castor  oil  and  quinine  are  surely 
chemically  the  same. 

Permission  could  be  further  given  for  co- 
operation in  erecting,  maintaining  and  admin- 
istering colleges  and  universities  in  the  foreign 
field.  At  home,  Harvard,  William  and  Mary, 
Yale,  Columbia,  and  Princeton,  all  originally 
ecclesiastically  controlled,  have  gradually  be- 
come separate  from  denominational  domination. 
Why  cannot  this  Church  permit  co-operation 
with  other  men  and  ministers  in  this  realm  of 
practical  endeavour  without  injecting  the  ques- 
tion of  orders  ?  It  is  not  raised  here  at  home ; 
why,  of  necessity,  should  it  be  forced  into  the 


CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION      271 

question  of  co-operation  in  the  far  fields  of 
missionary  endeavour,  especially  when,  as  we 
are  informed.  Christian  men  and  ministers  man- 
age to  get  on  better  together  out  there  than  they 
do  here  at  home?  *^The  Shantung  Christian 
University  in  China  now  stands  for  union  in 
educational  work.  The  English  Baptists  pro- 
vide the  plants  of  the  Medical,  Normal  and 
Theological  Colleges;  the  Anglicans  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  Congregationalists  of  the 
United  States  maintain  representatives  on  the 
Faculty ;  and  Presbyterians  are  responsible  for 
the  plant  and  equipment  of  the  Arts  College." 
The  steps  leading  to  the  co-operation  of  the 
S.  P.  G.  and  the  Presbyterian  Board,  together 
with  the  correspondence  which  passed  between 
Bishop  Montgomery,  Secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G., 
are  reviewed  by  Dr.  Arthur  J.  Brown  in  his 
recent  book,  *' Unity  and  Missions."*  The 
chapter  entitled  ''High  Church  Anglicans  and 
American  Presbyterians  in  Shantung  Univer- 

*  ' '  Unity  and  M  issions , "  pp .  2 1 6-235,  Arthur  J .  Brown .     Flem- 
ming,  H.  Revell  Co.,  N.  Y. 


272  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

sity,"  is  well  worthy  the  careful  study  of  all 
those  who  are  interested  in  the  question  of 
Christian  co-operation  in  educational  work,  and 
is  of  especial  interest  to  those  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  who  may  be  interested  in  this  subject, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  terms  of  co-opera- 
tion were  finally  agreed  upon  without  any  sem- 
blance of  compromise  on  the  part  of  the  English 
Church.  The  Presbyterian  Board,  in  accept- 
ing the  terms  and  conditions  offered  by  the 
S.  P.  G.,  stated  in  their  resolutions  accepting 
the  terms  offered  by  Bishop  Montgomery  that 
"union  in  educational  work  and  ecclesiastical 
uniformity  are  not  synonymous."  After  six 
years  of  co-operation,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Presbyterian  Board  writes: 

"The  result  has  abundantly  justified  our  faith  both 
in  the  plan  and  in  the  missionaries  who  were  to  carry 
it  into  effect.  The  union  has  been  in  successful  and 
happy  operation  ever  since.  If  we  cannot  get  together 
on  all  points,  we  are  at  least  getting  together  on  some ; 
and  perhaps  others  will  develop  from  them. 

"Enough  has  already  been  accomplished  to  prove 


CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION      273 

conclusively  that  American  Presbyterians,  English 
Baptists  and  High  Church  Anglicans  can  harmoni- 
ously and  effectively  co-operate  in  educational  work 
without  any  sacrifice  of  principle,  where  the  men  con- 
cerned have  the  mind  of  Christ.  Each  of  these  com- 
munions is  carrying  into  the  University  'its  full  dog- 
matic system, '  and  the  result  is  not  discord  but  large 
and  catholic  concord." 

*'The  experience  should  be  helpful  elsewhere.  The 
co-operation  which  we  all  desire  will  never  spring  full- 
orbed  into  being.  A  beginning  must  be  made,  small 
perhaps  and  very  imperfect ;  but  when  an  opportunity 
opens  to  make  that  beginning,  let  us  meet  it  with  deep 
solemnity  and  a  willingness  to  make  any  adjustment 
which  does  not  involve  conscious  disloyalty  to  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  who  prayed  with  unutterable 
yearning  that  His  disciples  might  'be  one'  will 
surely  help  them  in  any  effort  to  walk  together  in  lov- 
ing service  in  His  Holy  Name."  * 

Those  in  this  Church,  who  advocate  and  urge 
co-operation  with  other  communions  not  of  our 
Church  order,  see  no  valid  ground  or  reason 
why  such  co-operation  should  in  any  way  in- 

*" Unity  and  Missions,"  p.  235. 


274  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

volve  the  sacrifice  of  any  principle  relative  to 
the  faith  and  order  of  the  Church.  They  feel 
with  a  deep  sense  of  conviction  that  such  co- 
operation would  afford  opportunity  for  vindi- 
cating the  value  of  the  heritage  of  the  Church, 
and  give  practical  manifestation  of  its  inherent 
worth. 

There  is  current  in  this  Church  the  conten- 
tion that  to  give  formal  and  official  consent  to 
such  conference  and  co-operative  relationship 
would  be  to  sacrifice  an  essential  and  funda- 
mental principle.  To  withhold  such  consent 
results  in  the  sacrifice  of  principles  which  many 
regard  as  being  far  more  vital  and  fundamen- 
tal. If  the  Church  must  make  a  sacrifice,  she 
should  be  careful  that  she  sacrifices  the  right 
thing.  If  she  is  compelled  to  set  up  a  cross, 
and  is  called  to  suffer  upon  it,  as  she  is  com- 
pelled and  called  to  do,  she  should  take  up  her 
cross  and  follow  Him  who  offered  His  Body 
upon  Calvary  that  He  might  give  His  life  to  re- 
deem the  world.  The  Body  thus  offered  in 
sacrifice  finds  itself  glorified  in  the  great  realms 


CONFERENCE  AND  CO-OPERATION      275 

of  spirit  life.  We  must  not  shackle  or  crucify 
the  spirit  of  Christ. 

The  Church  must  remember  that  sins  of  omis- 
sion are  as  grave  and  serious  as  the  sins  of 
commission.  It  was  the  sin  of  omission  which 
the  Master  condemned  in  the  priest  and  Levite 
who,  fearful  of  committing  an  offence  against 
orthodoxy,  and  the  integrity  of  the  Jewish 
Church,  passed  by  on  the  other  side.  It  was 
the  clanking  of  the  delimiting  chains  of  ecclesi- 
asticism  which,  also,  led  Him  to  ask  the  ortho- 
dox Church,  standing  shackled  by  tradition  by 
the  untilled  vineyard,  *'Why  stand  ye  here  all 
the  day  idle?" 

It  would  be  perfectly  possible  and  entirely 
practicable  for  this  Church  to  disclaim,  in  a 
preamble,  the  intention  of  giving  any  interpre- 
tation as  to  her  theory  of  the  priestly  orders 
of  the  Church,  and  then,  without  any  compro- 
mise or  sacrifice  of  conviction,  resolve  to  per- 
mit and  allow  official  conference  and  co-opera- 
tion within  prescribed  and  definite  limits,  re- 
stricting, by  express  declaration,  such  co-opera- 


276  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

tion  as  would  involve  the  delimitation  of  her 
field  of  endeavour  and  responsibility. 

This  would  combine  the  principle  of  liberty 
with  the  principle  of  conservation,  and  would 
be  fair  and  considerate  to  all  views  and  con- 
victions held  and  cherished  in  this  Church. 

Others,  whose  opinions  are  worthy  of  con- 
sideration, would  understand  that  no  compro- 
mise of  conviction  was  involved  or  implied  in 
such  Christian  conference  and  co-operation  as 
we  have  ventured  to  suggest. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 
MOVEMENTS  TOWARD  UNITY 

IT  often  happens  that,  while  man  is  engaged 
in  planning  his  own  way  for  the  entrance 
of  God  into  human  life,  and  standing  expec- 
tant at  the  door  through  which  he  has  decreed 
that  Christ  must  enter,  that  suddenly,  through 
unobserved  methods  of  approach,  the  Lord  ap- 
pears in  His  temple,  and  comes  and  stands  in 
the  midst  of  His  people.  His  Spirit  worketh 
where  He  listeth.  In  and  through  forces  which 
man  may  despise  and  reject.  He  works  to  fulfill 
the  divine  purpose.  In  and  along  ways  which 
human  hands  have  not  built,  comes  the  Spirit 
of  the  eternal  purpose.  We  decree  that  God 
must,  almost  of  necessity,  come  according  to 
the  way  of  our  planning,  and  lo!  He  comes 

277 


278  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

through  means  and  forces  which  we  have  ac- 
counted futile  and  foolish.  We  build  majestic 
highways  for  His  approach,  and  lo!  ''He  comes 
in  clouds  descending."  Because  He  came  not 
as  His  ancient  Church  had  expected  and  de- 
creed, they  knew  Him  not  when  He  came.  Be- 
cause He  used  not  their  plan  for  revealing  His 
messiahship,  they  despised  and  rejected  Him. 
He  stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  they  knew 
Him  not. 

The  Church  of  to-day  would  do  well  to  remem- 
ber that  it  was  pride  of  order  and  system,  and 
the  slavery  to  interpretation,  that  blinded  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  a  Church  more  ancient  than 
our  own,  so  that  it  did  not  see  Him  who  came 
to  fulfill  their  law  and  their  prophets. 

With  conscious  humility  of  mind  and  with 
reverent  purpose  we  may  study  the  spiritual 
forces  which  are  working  in  human  life  to-day 
and  ask  what  their  signs  of  promise  are. 


MOVEMENTS  TOWARD  UNITY  279 

THE   CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   A   NOBLE   DISCONTENT 

There  is  an  increasing  evidence  of  a  feeling 
of  noble  discontent  with  conditions  which  now 
exist.  The  economic  waste  which  arises  out  of 
our  unhappy  divisions  is  making  itself  more 
widely  and  deeply  felt.  Men  are  asking  if  it 
is  worth  while  to  maintain  and  support  rival 
organisations  which  compete  for  support  in 
small  communities,  when  the  ancient  reasons  for 
their  separate  existence  have  been  almost  for- 
gotten, and  wlien  now  they  stand  for  practi- 
cally the  same  things.  Men  are  to-day  count- 
ing the  spires  which  rise  from  hamlets  all  over 
the  country-side ;  they  are  counting  the  number 
of  people  who,  on  Sunday,  pass  through  the 
rival  church  doors.  They  are  taking  account 
of  the  starvation  wages  that  are  paid  to  five 
parsons  in  towns  of  1500  or  2000  people  all  over 
the  land.  They  are  asking,  why  should  we  con- 
tinue to  do  it?  They  are  listening  with  one  ear 
to  the  appeal  for  the  support  of  these  five  hamlet 
parsons,   and  their  five  half-empty   churches, 


280  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

and  with  the  other,  they  are  listening  to  the 
Macedonian  cry,  ''Come  over  and  help  us." 
They  notice  that  it  comes  from  lands  where 
there  are  millions  who  are  without  the  means 
of  healing,  and  of  education,  and  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  Him  who  came  to  be  the  light  of  the 
world.  They  are  listening  with  an  ever-increas- 
ing consciousness  of  the  burden  and  the  privi- 
lege of  responding  to  the  numerous  appeals 
which  come  out  of  the  awakened  social  con- 
science, for  war  relief,  for  the  support  of  edu- 
cation, united  charity,  settlement  work,  for  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  for  emanci- 
pating the  negro,  and  the  child  labourer,  and  the 
slaves  to  intemperance,  and  the  slaves  to  ig- 
norance, and  the  slaves  to  social  vice,  and  the 
slaves  to  many  other  forms  of  human  bondage. 
Many  men  of  benevolent  disposition  are  to-day 
giving  twenty-five  and  fifty  per  cent  of  their 
incomes  in  response  to  these  and  other  vital 
appeals.  They  have  the  right  to  ask  the  com- 
parative worth  of  the  appeal  which  comes  to 
build  or  support  another  rival  church,  which 


MOVEMENTS  TOWARD  UNITY  281 

stands  for  nothing  vitally  distinctive  as  com- 
pared with  the  appeal  from  China,  or  the  neigh- 
bourhood settlement  house,  or  the  great  recon- 
structive work  of  social  service  and  liberal,  and 
at  the  same  time  religious,  education. 

There  are  sure  signs  that  the  appeals  of  this 
kind  are  going  to  become  more  imperative  and 
call  for  even  more  generous  liberality.  The 
oncoming  demand  for  week-day  instruction  in 
religion,  the  plans  which  are  now  being  thought 
out  for  giving  graded  instruction  in  the  ele- 
ments of  religion  in  connection  with  the  system 
of  public-school  instruction,  are  destined  to 
make  stupendous  demands  upon  the  liberality 
of  those  who  believe  that  this  must  be  done  to 
stem  the  growing  tide  of  unbelief  and  the  self- 
ishness, vice,  and  materialism  which  result 
from  it. 

That  men  are  discontented  with  social  and 
religious  conditions  as  they  now  exist  is  in- 
creasingly evident.  Those  responsible  in  the 
various  Christian  communities  for  planning 
their  church  policies  for  the  future  are  in  the 


282  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

presence  of  grave  responsibilities.  It  is  a  crisis 
when  much  time  needs  to  be  spent  in  seeking 
through  prayer  to  know  what  is  God's  will  and 
purpose.  If  He  calls  us  to  Calvary,  we  must 
be  willing,  with  a  supreme  faith,  to  go  there 
and  crucify  our  pride,  and  prejudice,  ''and 
whatsoever  else  may  hinder  us  from  godly  union 
and  concord."  We  need,  also,  to  beware  what 
we  label  in  these  days  as  ' '  ungodly  union. ' '  We 
need  to  ask,  may  it  not  be  ungodly  separation 
and  disunion? 

THE    FINDING    OF     THE    AMERICAN    LAYMAN 

The  most  significant  discovery  in  the  recent 
development  of  the  Church  has  been  the  finding 
of  the  layman.  He  has  found  himself,  and  he 
has  been  discovered  by  the  Church.  In  this  dis- 
covery lies  the  hope  and  promise  of  a  great 
spiritual  democracy.  The  age  of  priestcraft  has 
forever  gone.  The  layman  has  come,  and  he 
has  come  to  stay.  With  a  new-born  conscious- 
ness of  personal  responsibility,  with  a  new-bom 


MOVEMENTS  TOWARD  UNITY  283 

vision  of  his  duty  with  reference  to  the  mission 
of  the  Church,  with  a  new-born  realization  of 
his  own  inherent  priestly,  prophetic,  and  kingly 
qualities  as  a  son  of  God,  and  as  a  joint  heir 
with  Christ  of  the  gifts  of  God,  he  stands  to-day 
asking  as  never  before,  ''Lord,  what  wilt  thou 
have  me  do?"  He  thinks  he  is  hearing  the 
answer  of  his  Lord  in  the  cry  of  the  world's 
need.  He  is  convinced  that  the  call  to  service 
and  to  co-operation  is  the  call  of  the  Father. 
He  is  offering  himself  for  this  service.  He  is 
saying,  "Here  am  L    Send  me." 

In  connection  with  the  student  association 
work,  and  the  missionary  volunteer  work,  and 
the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  and  the 
federation  of  Churches,  and  social  settlement 
work,  and  co-operative  endeavour  for  religious 
education,  and  on  charity  organisation  boards, 
and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  directorates,  and  in  countless 
other  forms  of  united  Christian  service,  the  lay- 
men of  our  various  and  divided  communions  are 
coming  to  know  and  to  respect  each  other.  They 
are  finding  in  one  common  faith,  in  one  com- 


284  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

mon  Lord  and  Master,  a  practical  basis  and  in- 
spiration for  corporate  service.  They  are  ask- 
ing why  they  cannot  engage  in  corporate  com- 
munion in  search  for  closer  bonds  of  unity  with 
Christ  and  with  each  other. 

There  are  other  and  far  more  significant 
movements  looking  to  practical  Christian  co- 
operation which  are  welling  up  in  the  minds 
of  thinking  laymen,  and  they  are  talking  to  their 
ministers. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

OUR  POSITION  WITH  REFERENCE  TO 
THE  ORTHODOX  EASTERN  CHURCH 

IS  it  the  opinion  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  or 
the  great  Eastern  Church  which  restrains 
us!  Surely  their  opinion  is  worthy  of  respect. 
As  far  as  the  Eastern  Church  is  concerned,  is 
it  not  fair  to  ask  if  we  might  not  teach  that 
Church  some  very  valuable  lessons  by  acting 
ourselves  in  the  light  of  a  broader  vision,  and 
by  placing  our  orders  in  more  vital  touch  with 
the  ignorance  and  social  injustice  and  the  great, 
human  needs  of  the  world  in  a  way  that  would 
bring  larger  light  and  liberty  and  power  to 
men  ?  Would  not  the  Eastern  Church  ultimately 
respect  us  more  if  we  used  our  orders  and  our 
influence  in  a  way  to  make  them  more  largely 

285 


286  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

felt  and  more  widely  recognised  and  respected? 
Would  not  the  fearless  and  forceful  leadership 
which  our  Bishops  might  take  in  great  con- 
ferences called  to  consider  world  problems  tend 
to  make  the  Bishops  of  the  Eastern  Church  real- 
ise more  fully  the  need  for  closer  union  with 
us  in  view  of  the  great  reconstructive  work 
which  the  Church  is  called  to  do  in  helping  the 
nations  find  their  interdependence,  and  in  lead- 
ing them  to  fulfill  their  destiny?  Would  not  the 
manifestation  of  the  power  of  ''order,"  in  the 
midst  of  disorder,  which  might  be  shown  in 
great,  officially  sanctioned  efforts  of  co-opera- 
tion, tend  to  win  the  larger  measure  of  respect, 
and  help  to  create  a  compelling  sense  of  need 
for  closer  fellowship  between  our  leaders  and 
the  leaders  of  the  Orthodox  Eastern  Church,  if, 
instead  of  holding  on  to  restraining  fears  and 
convictions  as  to  the  succession,  they  would  ac- 
tually succeed  in  leading  with  their  power  of 
order  the  disordered  forces  of  righteousness 
and  the  disunited  but  spiritually  impowered 
communions  in  the  army  of  Christ? 


THE  ORTHODOX  EASTERN  CHURCH     287 

There  can  be  no  question  but  that  the  Ortho- 
dox Eastern  Church  is  to-day  enchained  by 
formalism  and  despotism,  and  is  in  need  of  a 
great  emancipation.  Tied  as  she  is  to  the  state, 
she  shares,  if  she  does  not  contribute  to  create, 
the  ignorance,  the  superstition,  and  the  bigotry 
which  so  largely  characterise  the  great  nation 
where  her  dominance  is  supreme.  Raising  no 
potent  voice  against  the  persecution  of  the 
Jews;  largely  complacent  in  the  presence  of 
superstitions  which  she  fosters  and  encourages, 
and  allowing  so  many  of  her  children  all  over 
the  empire  to  remain  in  illiteracy,  without  vigor- 
ous protests  to  the  government  of  which  she  is  a 
part,  she  stands  to-day  in  need  of  a  great  awak- 
ening, in  the  presence  of  an  oncoming  national 
crisis,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  mighty  people  of 
latent  genius,  and  of  vast  slumbering  but  now 
fast  awakening  potentialities.  She  would  be 
stirred  by  the  spectacle  of  great  coherent  and 
co-ordinated  spiritual  forces  voicing  to  the  pub- 
lic conscience,  and  through  this  conscience  to  the 
government,  the  great  appeal  for  truth,  and 


288  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

justice,  and  mercy,  and  national  righteousness, 
and  human  brotherhood. 

Is  the  appeal  of  the  cloister,  of  the  study,  of 
antiquity,  as  strong  to-day  for  guarding  a  trust, 
as  is  the  appeal  which  comes  from  the  cry  and 
the  blood  of  the  world  to  use  that  trust?  Shall 
we  battle  for  it,  or  battle  with  it?  Shall  we 
lose  our  life  in  seeking  to  save  it,  or  save  it  in 
giving  it  even  unto  what  men  call  death,  in  los- 
ing it  in  service?  Can  we  not,  in  this  crisis, 
trust  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  Eastern  Church 
to  understand? 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

OUR  POSITION  WITH  REFERENCE  TO 
THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

ARE  we  being  too  largely  restrained  by  our 
desire  to  win  the  confidence  and  respect  of 
the  Church  of  Rome?  We  are  in  full  accord 
with  those  who  desire  this  ultimate  union.  We 
believe,  however,  that  there  is  good  reason  to 
question  the  wisdom  of  that  method  which  asks 
that  we  withhold  from  conference,  co-operation 
and  fellowship  with  Protestant  Communions 
for  fear  that  we  will  be  misunderstood  by 
Rome.  Will  we  not  appear,  it  is  asked,  to  place 
our  orders  on  a  parity  with  Protestant  orders, 
and  disorder  generally,  and  thus  seem  to  forfeit 
our  own  claim  to  a  ministry  preserved  in  un- 
broken historical  continuity,  and  guarded  and 

289 


290  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

validated  by  an  unbroken  succession!  Perhaps 
so.  But  there  are  other  considerations  which 
are  worthy  of  serious  thought,  which,  if  they 
be  as  potent  as  we  believe  them  to  be,  would 
suggest  an  entirely  different  method  of  pro- 
cedure, with  the  view  of  attaining  the  same  end 
which  is  aimed  at  by  adopting  the  present 
method  and  policy  of  exclusiveness. 

The  open  and  candid  mind  will  ever  recognise 
the  many  and  great  spiritual  virtues  displayed 
throughout  the  centuries  in  the  character  of 
many  devout  and  earnest  members  of  the  great 
Roman  Communion.  Her  saints  and  heroes  are 
a  part  of  the  heritage  of  our  common  Christian- 
ity, and  are  an  inspiration  to  the  cultivation  of 
virtue  and  courage,  and  true  saintliness  of 
spirit.  The  organisation  and  administration 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  has  ever  been  charac- 
terised by  a  certain  governmental  genius,  which, 
while  it  has  not  always  been  prosecuted  with 
true  and  far-reaching  statesmanship,  has  mani- 
fested, as  no  other  organisation  on  earth  has 
done,  the  masterful  ability  to  control  and  dis- 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH   291 

cipline  great  and  diverse  masses  of  people  un- 
der a  monarchical  system. 

While  it  is  clearly  recognised  that  many  in- 
dividual Romanists  do  not  hold  the  views,  and 
maintain  the  attitude  of  open  defiance  and  an- 
tagonism to  Protestant  Christianity,  to  which 
we  shall  refer,  yet  it  is  evident  from  history, 
and  is  of  current  knowledge,  that,  as  an  or- 
ganisation speaking  with  official  authority,  and 
maintaining  an  official  attitude,  her  position  is 
one  of  radical  antagonism  and  exclusiveness. 
In  this  discussion  it  is  the  official  attitude  of  the 
Roman  Church  which  we  have  in  mind,  and 
which  is  under  consideration. 

The  Church  of  Rome  has  ever  been  most 
deeply  impressed,  and  as  her  history  shows,  has 
ever  been  most  largely  influenced  by  the  con- 
sciousness, the  dream,  the  hope,  and  the  spec- 
tacle of  power.  She  feels  that  she  can,  with 
calm  complacency  and  satisfaction,  view  the 
spectacle  of  disordered  and  disjointed  Protes- 
tantism. She  glories  in  it.  She  points  to  it 
with  self-conscious  pride.    She  ridicules  it.    She 


292  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

classes  this  Church  as  a  part  of  it.  In  matters 
where  her  interests  are  concerned,  she  speaks 
with  one  voice  the  demands  of  millions.  Having 
spoken,  she  pauses  to  listen.  She  hears  many 
contending  voices  of  protest.  They  lack  unity ; 
they  lack  force ;  they  lack  convincing,  sentiment- 
making,  vote-making  influence.  She  calmly  sur- 
veys this  Babel  confusion  of  protest.  She  is 
self-satisfied.  She  speaks  with  louder  tone,  and, 
where  she  can  do  so,  she  speaks  in  more  com- 
pelling accents.  Where  her  authority  is  or  has 
been  supreme,  she  speaks,  or  spake,  with  im- 
perious demand.  It  is  to  her  interest  that  the 
voice  of  protest  should  be  a  divided  voice.  It 
is  to  her  interest  that  this  disunion  should  be 
maintained  and  increased,  or  absorbed  by  her 
organisation.  She  doubtless  listens  with  su- 
preme satisfaction  to  the  terms  which  we  apply 
in  moments  of  controversial  heat  of  mind  and 
coldness  of  heart  to  our  non-confonnist  breth- 
ren. She  is  doubtless  well  pleased,  also,  that 
we  call  each  other  by  names  which  portray 
party  spirit  and  inherent  disunity  in  our  letters 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH   293 

to  ''Mr.  Editor.'*  It  is  to  the  interest  of 
worldly  wise  Rome  that  worldly  unwise  Protes- 
tantism should  be  kept  as  sectarian  as  possible. 
Some  of  her  writers  record  the  birth  of  a  new 
sect  with  almost  as  much  satisfaction  as  is  felt  in 
canonising  a  saint.  The  divisions  of  the  forces  of 
Protestantism  strengthen  the  power  of  the  Pope. 
A  recent  communication  from  the  Vatican 
declares  in  terms  which  can  but  be  commended 
for  their  perfect  clearness  of  statement,  Rome's 
uncompromising  position  as  to  her  basis  of 
unity.  "Unity  resides  in  me,"  writes  his  holi- 
ness, the  Pope,  to  the  members  of  the  Confer- 
ence on  Faith  and  Order.  Unquestionably  a 
great  power  of  unity  does  reside  in  him.  So 
great  is  this  unity,  as  it  stands  in  contrast  with 
the  disunity  of  Christendom  outside  of  him, 
that  he,  at  present,  feels  that,  while  he  may  la- 
ment its  existence  outside  of  his  organisation, 
he  can  afford  to  disregard  it  as  a  working  force 
with  which  he  must  reckon.  Disunion  in  Prot- 
estantism is  so  great  that  he  neither  fears  nor 
respects  it. 


294  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

Shall  we  seek  our  union  with  him  upon  his 
terms,  or  would  it  be  better  for  us  to  seek,  by 
making  ourselves  felt  in  the  united  influence  of 
ourselves  with  other  communions  outside  his 
control,  to  make  it  expedient  for  him  to  change 
his  terms  from  those  of  unconditional  submis- 
sion to  his  authority,  to  some  form  of  union 
without  such  unconditional  submission? 

Rome  has  ever  held  to  the  doctrine  of  tem- 
poral power.  To-day  she  holds  this  doctrine 
in  abeyance.  She  holds  it,  however,  in  reserve 
for  future  use,  and  she  holds  the  system  and 
theory  of  her  exclusive,  divine  right  inviolate, 
in  order  that  she  may  have  the  means  of  power 
when  occasion  offers  for  its  exercise.  As  long 
as  this  seems,  in  the  light  of  her  past  history, 
the  most  promising  method  for  exercising  her 
temporal  power,  she  will,  without  compromise, 
and  without  yielding,  remain  unbending  to  any 
approach  from  others  which  does  not  recognise 
these  claims  and  submit  to  them.  This  is  made 
evident  as  being  her  present  attitude  in  the 
letter  recently  received  from  the  Vatican  ad- 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH   295 

dressed  to  the  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order. 
There  are,  however,  other  and  more  vital 
ways  of  exercising  spiritual  powers  over  tem- 
poral affairs.  Through  united  prayer,  and  by 
religious  education  wisely  planned  and  directed ; 
by  changing  current  customs  and  existing  po- 
litical and  industrial  standards ;  by  enlightening 
the  public  conscience,  and  emancipating  the  will 
from  the  controlling  desires  and  impulses  which 
arise  out  of  greed,  covetousness  and  inordinate 
selfishness ;  by  proclaiming  the  truth  that  makes 
men  free;  and  by  the  exercise  of  a  spiritual 
influence  that  shall  bring  men  and  nations  to 
see  the  vision,  and  to  seek  communion  with  Him 
in  Whom  is  the  abundance  of  life,  and  who  is 
Himself  the  source  and  power  of  all  human 
liberty;  the  Church  may  exert,  through  cor- 
porate spiritual  endeavour,  an  influence  over  the 
powers  which  rule  in  high  places  and  low  that 
would  be  transforming,  and  far  more  perma- 
nent and  vital  than  could  ever  come  from  domi- 
nating the  will  by  the  voice  of  an  external  au- 
thority.    The  authority  of  Christ  is  supreme, 


296  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

but  it  is  distinctive  from  every  other  form  of 
authority  in  that  it  is  inherent  in  His  Body 
through  His  Spirit,  and  speaks  from  within  to 
the  conscience  of  man,  and  through  the  whole 
Body,  as  well  as  through  a  constituted  ministry, 
to  the  conscience  of  rulers  and  to  the  life  of 
nations. 

When  Christ  shall  have  become  supremely 
regnant  in  the  consciousness  of  His  Body  and 
in  the  conscience  of  the  race,  the  will  of  God 
will  be  done  upon  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  This 
end  cannot  be  attained,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  it 
can  be  largely  furthered,  by  the  voice  of  ex- 
ternal authority  decreeing  dogmas,  and  impos- 
ing laws  with  the  claim  of  an  infallible  divine 
right ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  passage  of 
sumptuary  laws  which  endeavour  to  reconstruct 
society  by  an  authority  imposed  from  without. 
Neither  the  external  voice  of  an  exalted  dig- 
nitary in  the  Church,  nor  the  voice  of  external 
law,  neither  the  Pope,  nor  Protestantism,  mili- 
tant and  aggressive  in  and  through  legislative 
enactments,  can  bring  into  human  consciousness, 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH    297 

and  place  over  the  conscience  of  men  or  of  na- 
tions, the  reign  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Such 
voices  and  influences  may  help  change  the  out- 
ward environment  of  life,  but  life  itself  must  be 
built  up  by  response  to  the  inner  voice  of  God, 
and  the  submission  of  the  will  to  the  direction 
and  control  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  incarnate 
and  remnant  in  his  Body,  the  Church. 

If  the  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order  should 
feel  convinced  that  its  largest  hope  lies  in  main- 
taining a  distinctly,  and  somewhat  exclusive  con- 
ciliatory attitude  toward  the  Orthodox  Eastern 
Church,  and  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  might  then 
be  well,  during  the  centuries  which  seem  des- 
tined to  intervene  while  the  Conference  is  pro- 
ceeding on  this  basis,  and  with  this  most  desir- 
able end  in  view,  to  organise  a  Conference  and 
Co-operation  of  Faith  and  Disorder,  in  order 
to  help  solve  the  grave  and  pressing  problems 
which  face  us  now,  and  which  cannot,  without 
disaster,  abide  long  academic  considerations  of 
questions  of  order  and  administration. 

With  full  and  cordial  recognition  of  the  need 


298  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

for  ultimate  organic  unity,  under  a  generally 
accepted  order,  which  will  unify  the  expressions 
of  faith,  and  preserve  and  bear  witness  to  the 
truth  committed  to  the  Church,  it  may  still  be 
maintained  and  urged  that  conference  and  co- 
operation among  those  who  hold  the  funda- 
mental and  vital  elements  of  faith  essential  to 
salvation,  could  be  undertaken  with  a  view  of 
bringing  to  bear  upon  the  stupendous  problems 
which  face  us  in  this  world  crisis  the  practical 
unity  of  the  forces  and  convictions  which  inhere 
in  the  various  communions  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity, to  the  end  that,  with  one  mind  and  one 
heart,  we  might  make  the  mind  and  will  of 
Christ  regnant  in  the  thought  of  the  nations 
and  in  the  councils  of  the  world. 

There  are  many  in  the  Church  who  feel  pro- 
foundly convinced  that  such  corporate  union 
of  spiritual  forces,  now  weakened  through  dis- 
union, would  be  capable  of  facing  the  social,  in- 
dustrial and  international  problems  which  arise 
out  of  past  neglect,  and  out  of  the  present  world 
crisis,  with  a  power  and  influence  which  cannot 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH   299 

be  exerted  by  any  one  communion,  or  by  tbem 
all  speaking  independently  of  each  other.  The 
ideals  of  Jesus  Christ  are  capable  of  realisation 
in  and  through  the  united  Church  alone.  While 
the  ultimate  aim  should  be  organic  unity,  the 
present  necessity  calls  for  every  possible  meas- 
ure of  unity  of  spirit  that  can  be  expressed 
through  practical  co-operation  as  a  result  of 
fraternal  conference  and  federated  purpose. 
Can  we  not,  therefore,  co-ordinate  and  unify 
the  will  to  serve? 

The  result  of  such  well-considered  and  wisely 
directed  corporate  Christian  influence  would  be 
sure  to  make  an  impression  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Rome  has  ever 
sought  to  have  her  name  regarded  as  the  sjti- 
onym  of  power.  There  was  a  time  when  this 
desire  was  fulfilled  in  larger  measure  than  it  is 
to-day.  She  still  fondly  clierishes  her  ancient 
ambitions.  Her  position  to-day  is  one  of  wait- 
ing watchfulness.  She  waits  the  return  to  her 
dominion  of  those  who,  in  their  desire  for  unity, 
will  submit  to  her  claims  and  domination.    The 


300  THB  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

practical  question  to  be  considered  is:  as  to 
what  influences  and  conditions  will  lead  Rome 
to  reconsider  her  position  and  recast  her  claims, 
and  so  alter  her  terms  of  unity  as  to  make  them 
at  least  possible  for  intelligent  and  hopeful  con- 
sideration. 

The  Church  of  Eome  is  seen  at  its  best  in 
those  countries  where  she  is  in  competition  with, 
and  restrained  by  the  presence  and  influence  of 
Protestant  Christianity.  The  strengthening 
of  Protestant  influence  by  co-operative  en- 
deavour would  undoubtedly  tend  to  help  the 
Roman  Church  to  break  the  bonds  by  which  her 
life  is  enchained,  and  make  her  a  more  vital  and 
tolerant,  as  well  as  a  more  distinctly  spiritual 
force  than  she  is  to-day.  It  would  perhaps  lead 
her  to  compare  more  closely  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  with  the  decrees  of  the  first 
Apostolic  Council  of  Jerusalem. 

When  Rome  shall  come  to  hear  a  voice  as 
loud  and  as  far-reaching  as  her  own ;  when  she 
sees  that  the  forces  of  non-conformity  to  her 
rule  and  order,  which  now,  by  reason  of  their 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH   30l 

disunion  and  incoherence,  she  regards  with  in- 
difference, have  come  to  a  practical  unity  of 
agreement  and  are  co-operating  in  their  influ- 
ence upon  temporal  powers  with  an  influence 
as  great  as,  or  greater  than  her  own,  Rome  will 
then  begin  to  respect  and  desire  the  forces 
which,  in  their  disunion,  fail  to  hinder  her  su- 
preme influence.  The  respect  which  Rome  has 
ever  had  for  power ;  the  agelong  consciousness 
of  a  dream,  largely  at  one  time,  but  never  com- 
pletely fulfilled,  but  still  fondly  cherished,  would 
lead  her  to  ask  herself  some  very  searching 
questions  if  she  saw  in  America  the  actual  com- 
ing together  into  practical  and  potent  confer- 
ence and  federation  of  the  forces  of  non-con- 
formity. The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  is, 
from  her  viewpoint,  included  among  these 
forces.  She  is  regarded  as  being,  with  the  rest 
of  the  Anglican  Communion,  largely  responsible 
for  Christian  schism  and  dissent.  To  be  re- 
garded by  Rome  as  schismatic,  and  by  non-con- 
formity as  exclusive  and  self-centred,  would 
seem  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  our  assuming 


S02  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

corporate  leadership  anywhere  until  we  can 
manage  to  get  into  a  working  agreement  with 
some  part  of  the  unhappily  divided  Christian 
world.  Protestants,  at  least,  will  work  with  us  if 
we  will  let  them.  At  times,  with  a  humility  which 
certainly  is  not  born  of  any  recognition  of  our 
numerical  strength,  they  have  shown  a  dispo- 
sition to  welcome  us  to  leadership.  The  ca- 
pacity of  the  Episcopal  Church  for  organisa^ 
tion  and  for  coherent  endeavour  has  made  its 
impress  upon  other  communions,  and  the  im- 
pression would  unquestionably  be  deepened,  and 
the  disposition  to  consider  episcopacy  as  essen- 
tial to  the  most  efficient  administration  would 
be  increased  if  we  should,  with  our  ordered  sys- 
tem, enter  into  fellowship  and  co-operation  with 
them  in  the  effort  to  help  solve  the  problems 
which  arise  out  of  economic,  political,  ecclesi- 
astical and  international  disorder. 

Rome  would  then  take  more  thoughtful  notice 
of  us.  She  has  ever  been  quick  to  measure 
forces.  She  knows  when  to  be  defiant,  and  when 
to  be  conciliatory.    Under  present  conditions, 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH   303 

Rome  knows  that  she  is  more  dominant  than  any- 
one other  ecclesiastical  power. 

The  plea  and  appeal  here  made  for  a  federa- 
tion, a  co-operation,  among  the  forces  in  Chris- 
tianity to  which  Rome  is  antagonistic,  is  in  no 
sense  made  out  of  any  feeling  of  enmity  to 
Rome.  It  is  not  with  the  idea  of  oppressing  her 
but  of  impressing  her  that  we  feel  the  value  of 
the  suggestion  that,  for  a  practical  constructive 
programme,  we  should  get  into  closer  relation- 
ship with  the  non-conforming  Christian  Com- 
munions. 

We  can  well  understand  that  it  would  be  to 
the  interest  of  the  Church  of  Rome  that  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  America,  and  the  Anglican 
Church  all  over  the  world,  should  be  kept  as 
a  buffer  between  her  and  radical  Protestantism. 

Having  so  long  failed  to  lead  Rome  to  make 
any  concession  to  our  position,  or  to  recognise 
in  any  way  either  our  orders  or  our  sacraments, 
might  it  not  be  well,  at  least,  to  get  on  speaking 
terms,  and,  if  possible,  into  closer  fellowship, 
and,  as  far  as  is  practicable,  into  co-operative 


304  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

agreement  with  those  communions  in  the  Church 
of  God  who  do  not  dispute  the  perfect  regu- 
larity of  our  orders,  who  recognise  the  validity 
of  our  sacraments,  and  who  are,  even  now,  fully 
united  with  us  in  the  confession  of  a  common 
faith  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  Apostles'  creed? 


CHAPTER  XL 

CONFERENCE   AND    CO-OPERATION 
WITH  PROTESTANT  COMMUNIONS 

THE  plan  and  hope  for  organic  Church  unity- 
must  include  Eastern,  Roman  and  Protes- 
tant Christianity,  and  all  other  comm.unions  in 
the  Church  of  God.  At  present,  and  doubtless 
for  a  long  time  to  come,  the  organic  unity  of 
this  church  with  all  the  Protestant  Communions 
existing  to-day  in  non-conformity  to  her  order 
and  worship,  is  neither  possible,  nor  is  it  imme- 
diately desirable.  This  Church  would  be  com- 
pletely swamped,  and  her  distinctive  ideals 
would  be  almost,  if  not  entirely,  effaced  in  the 
event  that  the  most  radical  non-conformists, 
for  example,  should  accept  the  quadrilateral 
proposal,  and  come  into  organic  unity  with  this 

305 


306  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

Church.  Their  view-point,  their  methods,  their 
attitude,  would  by  overwhelming  majorities 
control  in  the  councils  of  this  Church.  Their 
Bishops,  in  council,  would  far  outnumber  our 
own.  That  radical  and  progressive  views  are 
needed  and  perform  a  valuable  function  in 
Christian  enterprise,  is  unquestionably  true ;  but 
that  these  views  should  be  made  overwhelm- 
ingly dominant  in  the  councils  and  legislation  of 
a  united  Church  is  a  question  of  more  doubtful 
expediency.  Some  branches  of  non-conformity 
would  tend  to  contribute  a  balancing  element 
of  consei^atism.  At  present,  however,  it  would 
seem  that,  with  views,  methods,  and  policies  so 
radically  divergent,  it  would  be  better  that  de- 
nominational independence  and  responsibility 
should,  during  a  process  of  education  and  de- 
velopment, continue  to  exist.  Gradually,  those 
whose  views  and  methods  accord,  will  doubtless 
affiliate  and  unite,  which  will  lessen  the  problem 
of  ultimate  unity  by  delimiting  the  scope  of 
radical  differences. 
In  the  meanwhile,  conference  and  co-opera- 


PROTESTANT  COMMUNIONS  307 

tion  upon  matters  of  common  concern,  and  with- 
in limits  agreed  upon,  would  tend  to  create 
mutual  understanding,  and  mutual  sympathy. 
It  would  also  give  practical  coherence  and  soli- 
darity to  the  forces  of  righteousness  having 
their  roots  in  a  common  spiritual  faith.  And  it 
would  enable  the  separate  communions  to  main- 
tain their  conservative  or  radical  viewpoints 
without  the  compromise  of  organic  dignity, 
principle,  or  conviction,  which  each  would  con- 
tinue to  reserve  the  right  to  maintain  and  as- 
sert. 

At  the  present  time,  by  reason  of  its  exclusive 
position,  the  Episcopal  Church  neither  knows 
nor  understands  those  to  whom  she  has  made 
her  quadrilateral  offer.  If  they  should  accept 
it,  she  would  be  suddenly  brought  into  organic 
relationship  with  great  communions  without 
having  previously  created  any  basis  of  mutual 
understanding  and  sympathy. 

If  assent  were  given  for  conference  and  co- 
operation, it  would  afford  the  opportunity  for 
creating  an  atmosphere  of  sympathy  and  form- 


308  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ing  a  basis  of  understanding.  It  would  also 
make  it  possible  for  the  Christian  conscience  to 
voice  itself,  and  for  spiritual  conviction  to  ex- 
press itself  in  matters  of  public  concern,  and 
upon  questions  of  national  and  international 
moral  and  spiritual  reconstruction,  without  the 
sacrifice  of  any  distinctive  principles  whatso- 
ever. 

But,  it  is  asked,  shall  we  sacrifice  our  orders  ? 
In  what  way  should  we  sacrifice  them?  If 
offered  upon  the  altar  of  world  service,  they 
would  be  glorified.  If  thrown  into  the  midst  of 
disorder  and  chaos  with  the  hope  of  recon- 
structing the  shattered  ideals  and  institutions 
which  are  tumbling  down  all  over  the  world,  the 
sacrifice  would  not  be  a  loss  but  a  gain.  If,  by 
sacrificing  our  orders,  is  meant  abandoning 
them,  then  it  may  be  answered  that  no  imme- 
diate or  impending  crisis  suggests  any  reason 
why  this  should  be  for  a  moment  considered. 

We  are  convinced,  both  from  observation  and 
experience,  that  our  orders  and  our  ordered 
Church  are  never  more  largely  appreciated  than 


PROTESTANT  COMMUNIONS  309 

when  this  Church  and  her  ministry  enter  into 
cordial  and  sympathetic  conference  and  co-op- 
erative relationship  with  other  Christian  com- 
munions. It  often  happens  that  the  best  way  to 
fight  for  the  triumph  of  our  convictions  is  to 
fight  fearlessly  and  triumphantly  with  them. 
The  supreme  excellence  of  a  well-tempered  an- 
cient blade  may  be  shown  by  taking  it  into  the 
thick  of  a  hard-fought  fight;  or  it  may  be  de- 
scribed and  held  up  as  worthy  of  high  regard 
in  the  description  given  of  it  in  the  cata- 
logue of  an  ancient  armoury.  When  the 
great  fight  for  liberty  and  truth  is  on  in  the 
world,  men  would  rather  choose  to  test  the  value 
of  the  ancient  sword  by  putting  it  into  action. 
Rome  has  two  swords.  Protestantism  has  one. 
But  this  one  is  badly  broken.  Shall  we  fight 
each  other  with  the  fragments,  or  weld  them 
together,  and,  united  in  hope  and  purpose  and 
high  resolve,  follow  our  acknowledged  Leader 
into  the  thick  of  the  fight  where  ''He  goes  forth 
to  war"?  How  the  army  shall  ultimately  be 
officered  may  best  be  determined  when  it  is  fully 


310  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

mobilised.  The  chances  are  that  the  common 
sense  which  will  be  born  out  of  experience  will 
show  the  need  for  a  generally  accepted  order. 
This  will  be  the  opportunity  of  this  Church  to 
make  her  contribution.  The  need  for  what  she 
has  to  contribute  to  create  and  preserve  cor- 
porate unity  will  then  be  seen  and  felt.  In  times 
of  war,  the  nation  instinctively  looks  to  West 
Point.  It  is  for  us  to  show  our  capacity  for 
leadership.  This  capacity  is  shown  most  con- 
vincingly in  a  self -forgetful  willingness  to  serve 
anywhere,  and  to  serve  with  any  who,  with  us, 
are  willing  to  follow  in  His  train  Who  came  not 
to  be  ministered  into  but  to  minister,  and  Who 
was  among  us  as  one  Who  was  the  greatest 
Master  because  He  was  the  humblest  and  most 
self-sacrificing  servant. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

THE  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  LAYMAN 
BY  THIS  CHURCH 

IN  the  baptismal  office,  the  Episcopal  Church 
signs  and  seals  those  who  come  to  this  holy 
sacrament  with  the  tokens  of  their  inheritance 
as  the  children  of  God,  and  the  heirs  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ,  into  whose  Body  they  are 
then,  as  living  members,  incorporated.  The 
Church  declares  that,  in  view  of  this  vital  and 
spiritual  union  with  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church,  each  member  of  His  Body  is  expected 
to  continually  receive  and  express  the  life  and 
power  of  the  risen  Christ.  It  becomes  the  duty 
and  privilege  of  each  member  of  His  Body  to 
aid  in  extending  the  Kingdom  of  God.  This  is 
the   mission   of   the    Church.      The   baptismal 

311 


312  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

service  is  thus  the  foundation  charter  of  the 
great  spiritual  democracy  which  the  Church  is 
called  of  God  to  establish  in  the  earth. 

From  this  basis  proceeds  the  conception  of 
the  Church  with  regard  to  the  duties  and  birth- 
right obligation  and  privileges  of  the  laity  in 
the  government  and  work  of  the  Church.  Bishop 
Vail,  in  his  chapter  on  the  government  of  the 
Church,  has  very  clearly  stated  this  fundamen- 
tal fact  with  reference  to  position  of  the  laity. 
*'The  government  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States,"  he  writes,  **is 
strictly  and  purely  democratical ;  that  is  to  say, 
every  member  of  the  Church,  without  any  ex- 
ception in  any  class,  has  an  equal  right  in  the 
making  of  every  one  of  its  laws,  and  in  appoint- 
ing the  method  and  means  of  their  administra- 
tion. Or,  to  express  the  same  idea  in  another 
form,  there  is  not  a  single  exercise  of  authority 
in  this  Church  which  may  not  be  directly  in- 
fluenced by  every  member  of  it.  The  supreme 
power  of  governing  this  Church  is  the  will  of 
the  majority  of  the  whole  Church,  which  is  com- 


RECOGNITION  OF  THE  LAYMAN        313 

posed  of  Bishops,  Clergy  and  laity;  so  that 
Bishops  cannot  govern  alone,  nor  the  Clergy 
alone,  nor  the  laity  alone.  But  all  these  three, 
as  equally  belonging  to  the  Church,  and  inter- 
ested in  it,  act  together,  and  thus,  in  the  highest 
and  justest  style  of  popular  and  universal  suf- 
frage, the  certainly  ascertained  will  of  the  actual 
majority  of  the  whole  Church  is  the  supreme 
law  of  the  Church. 

''The  government  of  this  Church  is  also 
representative ;  that  is  to  say,  its  laws  are  all 
made  by  bodies  composed  of  representatives 
elected  by  the  whole  Church." 

The  place  and  power  of  the  laity  in  this 
Church  is  scarcely  realised  by  the  laity  them- 
selves. They,  perhaps,  do  not  pause  to  con- 
sider the  far-reaching  extent  of  their  inherent 
responsibilities.  It  is  to  be  feared  that,  while 
many  of  the  priests  of  the  Church  seem  at  times 
to  take  themselves  too  seriously,  the  laymen  of 
the  Church  do  not  take  themselves  seriously 
enough.  The  nature  and  scope  of  lay  obliga- 
tion and  influence  are  evident  when  the  follow- 


314  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ing  constitutional  provisions  of  this  Church  are 
seen  and  realised. 

The  congregation  elects  the  parish  vestry. 
The  vestry  calls  the  rector,  and  administers 
the  temporal  affairs  of  the  parish.  It,  however, 
does  much  more  than  this.  The  vestry  deter- 
mines and  certifies  as  to  the  fitness  of  every 
candidate  for  Holy  Orders  seeking  to  go  from 
the  parish  into  the  priesthood.  No  man  can 
enter  the  ministry  of  this  Church  until  his  fit- 
ness has  been  duly  considered  by  the  vestry 
assembled,  and  until  a  majority  of  their  whole 
number  shall  have  signed  their  assent  and  tes- 
timonial to  the  fact  that  they  consider  him 
morally,  mentally  and  otherwise  fitted  to  enter 
upon  preparation  for  the  sacred  office. 

Then,  too,  the  vestry  elects  delegates  to  the 
council  which  is  the  governing  legislative  body 
of  the  diocese.  No  measure  can  be  passed  in 
the  council  which  is  disapproved  by  the  laity. 
A  vote  by  orders  may  at  any  point  be  demanded. 
All  executive  officers,  including  the  Bishop  and 
the  Standing  Committee,  are  elected  by  a  con- 


RECOGNITION  OP  THE  LAYMAN        315 

current  vote  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  and  the 
consent  of  a  majority  of  both  orders  is  required 
to  secure  an  election. 

The  Diocesan  Council  thus  constituted  elects 
the  Standing  Committee,  which  is  composed  of 
an  equal  number  of  clergymen  and  laymen.  The 
Standing  Committee  thus  constituted  is  called 
to  give  final  consent  to  the  ordination  of  can- 
didates for  Holy  Orders,  so  that  twice  the  ap- 
plicant for  ordination  has  to  pass  the  scrutiny 
of  the  laity,  and  secure  their  assent.  The 
Standing  Committee  also  has  to  give,  or  refuse, 
consent  to  the  consecration  of  Bishops,  so  that 
no  man  can  be  elevated  to  this  office  unless 
approved  either  by  the  vote  of  the  General 
Convention  assembled,  or  by  the  majority 
vote  of  all  the  Standing  Committees  of  the 
Church. 

The  Diocesan  Convention,  through  a  vote  by 
orders,  elects  four  clerical  and  four  lay  deputies 
to  the  triennial  General  Convention  of  the 
Church.  In  that  body  three  separate,  and  yet 
concurrent  votes,  may  be  demanded,  and  a  ma- 


316  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

jority  in  each  order  required  to  secure  the  adop- 
tion of  any  propositions,  or  the  passage  of  any 
vital  measure.  The  House  of  Bishops  sits  apart 
and  votes  in  its  own  order.  The  House  of  Depu- 
ties, composed  of  four  clerical  and  four  lay 
delegates  from  each  diocese  and  missionary 
jurisdiction,  sits  as  one  body.  But  upon  de- 
mand, any  vote  upon  a  vital  proposition  may 
be  required  to  be  taken  by  orders,  giving  power 
to  the  laity  to  prevent  the  passage  of  any  meas- 
ure which,  by  them,  is  disapproved,  even  though 
it  has  received  the  assent  of  a  majority  vote 
in  the  House  of  Bishops,  and  the  assent  of  a 
majority  vote  of  the  clerical  order  in  the  House 
of  Deputies.  Any  constitutional  change  or 
Prayer  Book  alteration  has  to  be  voted  on  by 
orders,  and  then  referred  back  for  consideration 
to  the  Diocesan  Councils,  and  thus  comes  back 
directly  to  the  congregations,  who,  through  their 
vestries,  elect  the  delegates  to  the  Council. 
Thus  the  laity  are  impowered  with  fundamental 
and  grave  responsibilities  in  this  Church,  which, 
by  reason  of  these  constitutional  provisions,  is 


RECOGNITION  OP  THE  LAYMAN         317 

essentially  democratic  in  the  form  and  spirit  of 
her  government  and  administration. 

It  is,  however,  significant  that  the  call  which 
has  aroused  the  laity  of  this  Church  to  the  large 
measure  of  their  sense  of  responsibility  for 
helping  to  fulfill  the  mission  of  the  Church,  as 
recently  manifested,  is  a  call  which  has  come  to 
them,  in  large  measure,  from  outside  this 
Church. 

The  clear,  definite  call  to  world  evangeliza- 
tion; the  practical  and  potent  appeal  of  the  Lay- 
men's Missionary  Organisation,  voiced  through 
conventions  held  all  over  America,  and  ex- 
pressed through  the  every  member  canvass 
idea,  which  originated  in  this  organisation, 
has  aroused  and  enlisted  the  co-operation  of  the 
laity  of  this  Church  to  an  extent  which  we 
should  gladly  recognise  and  accord  to  the  spirit 
and  desire  of  these  co-operative  endeavours  to 
extend  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  The  Church 
trained  the  spirit  in  the  laity  which  makes  the 
response,  and  by  her  spiritual  ministration, 
trained  the  will  to  respond.    The  call,  however, 


318  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

which  is  to-day  inspiring  thousands  of  laymen 
in  this  Church  to  make  response  is  the  call  of 
Christ  through  agencies  originating  outside  her 
fold. 

That  there  are  agencies,  such  as  the  Sunday 
School  Movement,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the 
Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew,  which  were  bom 
in  the  consecrated  thought  of  her  own  sons,  and 
which  have  been  heard  and  answered  by  men  of 
every  Christian  communion,  shows  how  inter- 
related and  interdependent  we  are  in  the  great 
Household  of  God,  "which  is  the  blessed  com- 
pany of  all  faithful  people." 

The  time  has  surely  come  when  it  behooves 
the  bishops  and  pastors  of  the  Church  to  face 
the  facts  as  they  exist,  with  an  open  and  candid 
mind,  and  to  take  inventory  of  the  forces  and  in- 
spirational impulses  which  are  to-day  appealing 
to  the  laymen  of  this  Church,  and  which  will 
appeal  with  more  impelling  power  in  the  years 
which  lie  immediately  ahead,  and  to  ask  what 
is  the  wisest  policy  to  pursue  in  order  to  con- 
serve and  keep  in  touch  with  these  forces  which 


RECOGNITION  OF  THE  LAYMAN         319 

are  now  so  potently  at  work  in  the  heart  and 
conscience  and  will  of  so  many  of  her  members. 
In  determining  what  this  policy  shall  be,  the 
laity  have,  in  this  Church,  a  voice  and  influence 
which,  if  it  should  make  itself  felt  in  legislation, 
as  it  does  in  co-operative  endeavour,  would  tend 
very  largely  to  decide  what  should  be  the  policy 
and  attitude  of  this  Church  with  reference  to 
these  great  world  movements,  and  spiritual 
awakenings  which  are  going  on  about  us,  and 
which  will  go  on  without  us,  but  which  are 
calling  to  us  to  help,  with  a  pathos  and  power 
of  appeal  which  sounds  to  very  many  of  us  as 
though  it  were  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  and 
Saviour  of  mankind  speaking  to  us  through  the 
baptised  membership  of  His  Body. 


CHAPTER  XLII 

THE  WAY  PREPARED  FOR  THIS 
CHURCH 

THIS  Church  stands  to-day  before  a  wide- 
open  door  of  opportunity.  She  has  much 
to  give.  Her  inheritance  from  the  past  is  a 
possession  needed  to  enrich  and  impower  the 
Church  of  the  future.  The  creed  she  says  is 
being  increasingly  said  by  other  communions. 
The  prayers  of  her  liturgy  are  being  more  fre- 
quently learned  and  woven  into  the  public 
prayers  of  non-conformist  ministers.  Recently 
her  prayer  for  missions  has  been  printed  and 
used  in  unison  by  the  thousand  and  more  men 
and  women  convened  in  two  great  Laymen's 
Missionary  Conventions.  The  Christian  Year 
is  winning  constantly  increasing  favour.    The 

320 


THE  WAY  PREPARED  FOR  THIS  CHURCH    321 

great  festivals  which  we  keep  are  being  widely 
observed  in  other  communions.  Advent  and 
Lenten  services  are  publicly  announced,  and 
appropriate  penitential  devotions  are  made  in 
many  Churches  not  of  our  communion.  Vested 
choirs  and  vested  ministers  are  no  longer  dis- 
tinctly characteristic  of  any  one  body  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  Ancient  prejudices  against 
our  form  and  ceremonial  worship  are  passing 
away.  The  prejudice  against  prelacy  is  deep 
rooted,  and  is  perhaps  more  vital  than  ever  in 
view  of  the  growing  consciousness  of  democ- 
racy, and  in  view  of  the  conviction,  which  the 
world  crisis  has  accentuated,  that  the  claim  of  ■ 
a  divine  right  to  rule  must  seek  and  vindicate 
its  exclusive  claim  on  some  other  ground  than 
hereditary  descent.  The  value  of  continuity 
of  order,  and  the  conserving  and  pragmatic 
value  of  the  executive  and  administrative  epis- 
copal form  of  government,  are,  by  many,  com- 
ing to  be  frankly  acknowledged,  and  sincerely 
desired. 

What  is  now  needed  is  the  creation  of  an 


322  THE  CHtJRGH  ENCHAINED 

atmosphere  of  sympathetic  understanding.  The 
scribes  and  Pharisees  who,  in  this  hour  so  preg- 
nant with  the  hope  and  desire  for  unity,  use 
the  language  of  bitterness,  and  of  animosity, 
and  cast  terms  of  caustic  speech  into  the  faces 
of  other  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ  to  burn 
them  like  vitriol,  are  the  enemies  of  the  spirit 
and  the  hope  of  unity  in  this  day  of  the  open 
door  of  opportunity.  Such  language  proceeds 
from  the  prejudice-blinded  mind  of  the  ecclesi- 
astic and  not  from  the  hearts  of  men  inspired 
by  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 

On  the  other  hand,  every  approach  which 
tends  to  conciliate  the  spirit  of  misunderstand- 
ing, and  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  preju- 
dice, should  be,  by  this  Church,  welcomed  and 
encouraged.  If  she  comes  bearing  in  one  hand 
her  ancient  treasures,  and  in  the  other  a  drawn 
sword,  her  approach  will  scarcely  meet  with  a 
glad  response  and  a  cordial  welcome.  If  she 
comes  with  princely  pomp  and  arrogant  spirit 
and  stands  armed  for  defence  at  the  open  door, 
it  is  apt  to  be  closed  in  her  face.    If  she  comes 


THE  WAY  PREPARED  FOR  THIS  CHURCH    323 

as  one  ^rt  about  the  waist  with  a  towel,  anxious 
and  ready  to  serve,  she  will  be  welcomed  at 
the  open  door  by  other  servants  of  the  Son  of 
God,  Who  humbled  Himself  and  made  Himself 
of  no  reputation  that  through  humility  and  love 
He  might  conquer  and  win  the  hearts  of  men. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

THE  WORLD,  THE  WORK,  THE  WASTE, 
CO-WORKERS 

THE  laymen  are  beginning  to  think  of  the 
mission  of  the  Church  in  terms  commen- 
surate with  its  dignity.  They  are  coming  to 
realise  that  the  mission  is  too  great  for  any  one 
communion,  and  that  useless  waste  results  from 
a  lack  of  unity  of  plan  and  purpose.  Why,  it 
is  asked,  does  not  the  great  Christian  Church 
get  together  and  plan  a  programme  ?  The  time 
is  near  at  hand  when  this  will  be  done.  The 
Episcopal  Church  must  decide  as  to  what  shall 
be  her  official  relation  to  the  world  programme. 
Many  of  her  wealthiest  and  most  influential 
laymen  will  have  no  hesitancy  in  deciding  what 
their  attitude  will  be.    That  many  of  them  will 

324 


WORLD,  WORK,  WASTE,  CO-WORKERS     325 

co-operate  with  munificent  gifts,  commensurate 
with  the  magnitude  of  the  endeavour,  may  be 
reasonably  expected  and  confidently  assumed. 

If  representatives  of  missionary  organisa- 
tions at  home  and  abroad  should  come  into  con- 
ference and  take  up  first  a  plan  and  programme 
for  providing  hospitals  for  the  mission  fields 
of  the  world,  the  task  would  challenge  the  faith 
of  the  world.  A  survey  could  be  made  by  ex- 
perts to  ascertain  just  where  great  Christian 
hospital  centres  could  be  located  in  China,  Ja- 
pan, India  and  other  non-Christian  countries. 
A  programme  could  be  planned  extending  over 
from  three  to  five  years.  It  could  be  based  upon 
the  expectation  of  securing  for  this  purpose 
perhaps  two  or  more  million  dollars  a  year. 
The  sum  needed  might  demand  five  million  a 
year.  With  the  Christian  world  committed  to 
the  plan,  the  sum  would  not  be  impossible.  This 
appeal,  addressed  to  men  of  large  means,  would 
come  to  them  in  terms  in  which  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  think.  It  would  impress  them  as 
an  economic  and  businesslike  proposition,  and 


326  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

would  make  a  splendid  demand  upon  their  sym- 
pathy and  their  faith.  It  would  assure  them 
that  what  they  were  giving  to  help  heal  the 
nations  would  not  be  spent  in  rival  and  re- 
duplicated institutions.  With  ten  million  dol- 
lars there  could  be  built  one  hundred  hospitals, 
or  fifty  with  endowment  sufficient  to  provide 
for  them.  Men  of  all  communions  would  rally 
to  the  support  of  such  a  programme  as  they 
have  rallied  to  the  appeals  of  the  International 
Committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

The  same  kind  of  programme  might  be,  and 
doubtless  will  be  (it  surely  should  be),  worked 
out  with  a  view  to  provide  a  certain  number  of 
national  Christian  colleges  and  universities  for 
non-Christian  countries.  Again,  as  a  result  of 
an  international  survey,  and  a  concerted  en- 
deavour, a  programme  extending  over  from 
three  to  five  years  could  be  planned  and  the  ap- 
peal made  on  the  basis  of  a  supply  for  a  world 
need.  It  would  be  in  terms  of  millions.  The 
task  of  raising  it  could  be,  and  doubtless  would 
be,   divided  among   Christian  nations,  among 


WORLD,  WORK,  WASTE,  CO-WORKERS     327 

the  states  of  America,  and  among  the  cities  of 
these  states,  and  among  the  various  co-operat- 
ing communions.  The  appeal,  like  that  for  a 
hospital  programme,  would  have  something 
winsome  and  inspiring  about  it  that  would 
startle  the  thought  of  men  and  rouse  their  in- 
terest. The  element  of  Christian  solidarity,  of 
broad  vision,  of  economic  and  practical  effi- 
ciency would  commend  it  to  men  whose  response 
would  be  in  terms  of  a  certain  per  cent  of  the 
sum  needed  and  asked  for. 

From  these  hospitals  would  go  native  nurses 
and  native  doctors  to  extend  the  ministry  of 
healing.  With  such  national,  or  better  inter- 
national, leadership,  the  non-Christian  national 
governments  would  doubtless  in  many  instances 
co-operate. 

From  these  great  Christian  universities  would 
go  trained  teachers,  many  of  whom  would  be 
Christians,  to  spread  the  truth  that  makes  men 
free,  and  do  their  share  to  create  the  lasting 
bonds  of  international  brotherhood. 

In  the  non-Christian  lands,   the   guarantee 


328  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

could  at  least  be  given  and  kept  that  the  insti- 
tutions should  at  least  be  kept  permanently 
Christian  in  tone  and  teaching,  which  is  more 
than  can  be  said  of  many  of  the  universities  of 
America. 

Around  the  institutions  could  be  grouped  the 
theological  seminaries  designed  to  train  the 
native  ministry  of  the  native  Church,  and  each 
communion  could  see  to  it  that  the  integrity  of 
its  position  was  maintained  without  compro- 
mise. 

Perhaps  this  is  as  far  as  a  wisely  and  tv^ell- 
directed  programme  of  co-operative  endeavour 
would  think  of  going  at  present.  To  suggest 
the  delimitation  of  the  field  of  evangelistic  work 
and  administrative  responsibility  would  doubt- 
less meet  with  serious  opposition.  For  the 
sake  of  engaging  the  co-operation  of  all  who 
might  be  led  to  co-operate  in  the  hospital  and 
educational  programme,  the  question  of  de- 
limiting the  field  of  evangelistic  responsibility 
should  not  be  urged  or  insisted  upon.  This  is 
a  problem  in  itself,  and  could  best  be  left  to 


WORLD,  WORK,  WASTE,  CO-WORKERS     329 

another  day  and  to  other  men.  The  years  that 
are  coming  will  have  new  light  and  new  wisdom 
to  contribute  to  its  solution. 

It  is  certainly  not  well  to  carry  our  divisions 
into  the  mission  field  in  matters  where  there  is 
co-operation  already  at  home,  as  is  the  case  in 
community  and  state  hospitals  and  great  state 
and  national  universities. 

In  these  new  movements  toward  practical 
unity,  in  this  great  united  international  mission 
programme,  the  layman  aroused,  conscious  of 
mission,  trained  to  think  in  terms  of  efficiency, 
and  along  lines  of  corporate  endeavour,  will 
have  a  determining  influence  in  shaping  the 
policy  of  the  Christian  Church  in  the  years 
which  lie  ahead  of  us.  The  laymen  may  indeed 
demand  that  the  delimiting  chains  of  ecclesi- 
asticism  be  broken  that  in  and  through  this 
Church  they  may  be  given  freedom  to  serve  for 
the  larger  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 

This  Church  of  ours  may,  if  it  will,  continue 
to  withhold  its  official  sanction  to  such  limited 
co-operation  as  has  been  suggested.     She  will 


330  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

not,  however,  prevent  it.  She  cannot.  Nor  can 
she  prevent  her  lajnuen  from  making,  as  many 
of  them  unquestionably  will,  generous  and  mu- 
nificent contributions  to  the  appeal  which  the 
programme  will  make. 

The  writer  feels  convinced  that  the  pro- 
gramme and  the  appeal,  in  some  such  form,  will 
confront  the  Christian  Church,  in  America  at 
least,  in  the  not  far-distant  future.  There  are 
those  who  may  .not  desire  it.  This  Church  can- 
not prevent  it,  even  if  she  would,  by  either  si- 
lence or  the  refusal  to  give  to  the  endeavour  her 
official  sanction. 

That  this  Church  should  refuse  to  consent  to 
such  limited  and  clearly  defined  co-operation 
[Would  seem  almost  unthinkable.  That  she  should 
authorise  her  official  Board  of  Missions  to  so 
confer  and  co-operate  would  be,  in  the  judgment 
of  many,  the  part  of  far-sighted  wisdom.  If 
serious  objection  should  be  made  to  this,  then 
the  Church  should  be  willing  to  authorise  the 
Board  of  Missions  to  appoint  representatives 
to  engage  in  such  conferences  and  co-operation, 


WORLD,  WORK,  WASTE,  CO-WORKERS     331 

appointing  those  who  would  welcome  the  op- 
portunity of  doing  so.    In  the  presence  of  the 
vision   of   so   great    an   opportunity   for   this 
Church  to  make  her  influence  and  leadership 
felt,  one  feels  humiliated  by  the  thought  of  the 
possibility  that  the  Church  might  dare  to  refuse. 
For  her  to  do  so  would  make  it  impossible  for 
her  to  share  in  the  credit  and  glory  of  the  enter- 
prise to  which  the  contributions  which  would  be 
made  by  her  broad-visioned  laymen  would  en- 
title her.    It  would  also  preclude  the  possibility 
of  her  exerting  her  influence  in  the  administra- 
tion and  control  of  the  institutions  founded  un- 
der this  programme.    And  it  would  be  a  con- 
cession to  the  theories  of  those  in  the  Church 
whose  opposition  would  be  largely  founded  upon 
interpretations  of  the  ministerial  orders  which 
the  Church  has  never  officially  sanctioned,  and 
which  she  should  not  be  expected  to  sanction, 
in  this  exclusive  sense,  in  this  indirect  way. 

The  time  has  come  when  questions  of  theory 
and  interpretation,  concerning  which  scholars 
and  priests  stand  hopelessly  divided,  should  not 


332  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

be  allowed  to  clog  the  wheels  of  progress,  or 
be  forced  as  issues  and  hindrances  into  the  prac- 
tical work  of  the  Church.  They  are  questions 
with  which  the  laity  are  not  primarily  and 
vitally  concerned,  and  this  Church  should  find 
some  way,  and  find  it  as  soon  as  possible,  by 
which  those  who  are  untrammelled  by  unau- 
thorised exclusive  interpretations  may,  with  her 
sanction  and  blessing,  respond  to  what  they 
very  earnestly  believe  to  be  the  clear  call  of 
Christ  to  their  conscience  and  to  His  Church. 


CHAPTER  XLIV 
THE  RESTRAINT  OF  POWER 

THE  token  and  sign  of  true  greatness  of 
spirit  and  power  is  never  so  clearly  evi- 
dent as  it  is  in  its  restraint.  This  is  the  marvel 
and  the  wonder  of  the  life  and  power  of  God. 
There  are  forces  in  nature  which,  if  unbound, 
would  in  a  moment  annihilate  the  universe.  The 
world  exists  by  the  marvel  of  the  providence 
which  restrains  created  force.  The  vast  pa- 
tience of  God  is  manifested  in  the  restraint  of 
justice  by  the  power  of  mercy.  The  masterful 
majesty  of  Christ  was  shown  when,  with  the 
power  to  summon  to  His  aid  ''twelve  legions  of 
angels,"  He  suffered  Himself  to  be  betrayed 
by  a  kiss,  and  to  be  led  to  judgment  and  to 
crucifixion  by  the  unrestrained  malice  and  fury 

333 


334  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

of  the  mob.  That  the  devil  and  his  angels  are 
not  self-restrained,  is  proof  of  the  limitation, 
and  prophetic  of  the  ultimate  overthrow  of 
their  power. 

Those  who  hold,  by  reason  of  their  majority, 
the  power  to  impose  their  will  upon  the  whole 
Church,  will,  if  they  be  imbued  with  the  restrain- 
ing presence  of  the  all-powerful  Spirit  of  God, 
refrain  from  seeking  to  crush  the  liberties  of 
those  who  are  at  their  mercy. 

The  majority  may  rightly  insist  upon  their 
liberty  to  act  in  conformity  with  their  convic- 
tions ;  they  may  not,  without  tyranny,  demand 
that  others  of  contrary  conviction  be  com- 
pelled to  act  with  them. 

If,  for  example,  in  the  case  of  the  Panama 
Conference,  the  Bishop  of  the  missionary  juris- 
diction of  Panama,  or  a  missionary  Bishop  of 
Porto  Rico  or  Mexico  had  been  ordered  to  at- 
tend this  convention,  either  by  the  Board  of 
Missions,  or  by  the  General  Convention,  it 
would  have  been  a  tyranny  of  the  majority.  If 
the  President  of  the  Board,  or  any  member  of 


THE  RESTRAINT  OF  POWER  335 

it,  had  been  ordered  to  go  as  a  delegate,  it  would 
have  been  an  act  of  tyranny.  If,  in  view  of  a 
protest,  funds  contributed  by  the  General 
Church,  where  divergent  views  obtain,  had  been 
voted  to  defray  the  expenses  of  a  conference 
opposed  by  a  minority,  this  too  would  have 
shown  the  lack  of  restraint  of  power. 

None  of  these  things  was  done.  That  those 
should  have  been  delegated  to  go  who  would 
choose  to  accept,  and  make  use  of  their  creden- 
tials, was  not  in  any  way  an  act  of  oppression ; 
nor  did  it  show  a  disregard  for  the  views  of 
others.  The  right  ot  the  minority  to  express 
their  views,  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  them, 
was  freely  accorded  on  the  one  hand,  and  fully 
exercised  on  the  other. 

For  the  minority  to  have  insisted  that  a  rep- 
resentative missionary  organisation  did  not 
have  the  right  to  send  those  who  were  willing  to 
go  to  a  conference  where  the  facts  and  condi- 
tions of  half  a  continent  were  to  be  reviewed 
and  considered,  seems  a  contention  which  could 
not  be  assented  to  without  a  forfeiture  of  what 


336  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

would  seem  to  be  a  reasonable  responsibility; 
and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  ac- 
credited bishops  and  other  missionaries  work- 
ing in  this  field  which  was  to  be  placed  under  re- 
view, it  would  seem  that  the  Board  would  have 
declined  to  meet  a  definite  missionary  obligation 
had  it  refused  to  send  those,  who  were  perfectly 
willing  to  go,  to  learn  more  of  the  facts  and  con- 
ditions upon  which,  of  necessity,  an  intelligent 
missionary  policy  must  be  based  and  prose- 
cuted. That  the  money  contributed  by  the  mi- 
nority was  not  voted  to  defray  the  expense  of 
this  mission,  and  that  the  views  of  the  minor- 
ity were  respected  and  safeguarded  by  reso- 
lutions restricting  the  powers  of  delegates  sent 
to  the  point  of  listening  and  talking,  shows  the 
exercise  of  the  power  of  restraint  in  a  measure 
which,  to  the  Board,  has  not  been,  by  the  minor- 
ity, very  graciously  accorded.* 

*  Until  the  rights  of  the  Board  of  Missions  are  clearly 
determined  and  defined,  such  controversies  are  ever  liable  to 
take  place.  It  was  for  the  purpose  of  defining  these  rights 
that  a  resolution  was  introduced  in,  and  passed  by,  the  House 
of  Deputies  in  the  General  Convention  of  1913.    Had  this  reso- 


THE  RESTRAINT  OF  POWER  337 

lution  been  either  passed  or  defeated  by  both  Houses,  the 
Panama  Conference  controversy  would  doubtless  have  been  ob- 
viated, as  the  rights  of  the  Board  would  then  have  been  clearly 
defined.  The  discussion  as  to  the  wisdom  of  participation 
would  not  have  caused  such  bitterness  of  contention  had  the 
question  of  the  Tights  of  the  Board  been  clearly  and  judicially 
defined.     The  followiTig  is  the  resolution  referred  to : 

"Wlwreas,  this  Church,  through  its  General  Convention,  has 
repeatedly  urged  that  the  ties  which  bind  Christian  people 
should  be  strengthened,  and  that  the  Church  should  seek  to  co- 
operate with  Christian  people,  not  in  communion  with  thia 
Church,  in  the  effort  to  extend  the.  Kingdom  of  God  in  so  far 
as  such  co-operation  can  be  engaged  in  in  loyalty  to  the  faith 
and  order  of  this  Church; 

"And  whereas,  the  Board  of  ^'issions  of  this  Church  has 
been  invited  to  co-operate  with  other  Christian  Boards  of 
Missions  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  ways  and  means  of  ex- 
tending the  Kingdom  of  God ; 

"  Eesolved,  the  House  of  Bishops  concurring,  That  the 
Board  of  Missions  is  informed  that  in  the  judgment  of  the 
General  Convention  it  has  full  authority  to  take  such  steps  as 
it  may  deem  wise  to  co-operate  with  other  Christian  Boards  of 
Missions  in  this  country  and  elsewlicre,  in  united  efforts  to 
arouse,  organise  and  direct  the  missionary  spirit  and  activity 
of  Christian  people,  to  the  end  that  the  people  of  the  Church 
may  be  enabled  the  better  to  discharge  their  duty  to  support 
the  Mission  of  the  Church  at  home  and  abroad  through  prayer, 
work  and  giving.  Provided,  That  the  expense  incurred  in  such 
co-operative  educational  efforts  shall  not  be  a  charge  upon 
funds  raised  through  the  Apportionment."  {General  Conven- 
tion Journal,  1913,  p.  320.) 


CHAPTER  XLV 

A  CONFEEENCE  AND  CO-OPERATIVE 
COMMISSION 

THERE  are  many  in  tHs  Church  who  feel 
convinced  that,  so  long  as  compulsion  is 
not  used  to  require  those  to  enter  into  confer- 
ence and  co-operative  relationship,  who,  as  in- 
dividuals, do  not  wish  to  do  so,  the  official 
boards  and  commissions  of  this  Church  already 
^^have  full  authority*^  to  engage  in  such  con- 
ference relationship  as  they  may  determine 
upon. 

It  would  seem  reasonable  and  right  to  insist 
that,  within  certain  designated  limits,  our  of- 
ficial boards  and  commissions  should  be  left  free 
(or,  if  not  now  free,  given  freedom)  to  confer 
and  co-operate  with  other  men  and  ministers 

338 


A  CO-OPERATIVE  COMMISSION         339 

and  boards  in  promoting  matters  of  common 
concern  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  Church. 
In  such  matters  as  now  enlist  the  co-operation 
of  earnest  Christian  men,  such  as  publishing 
literature,  providing  for  the  care  of  the  sick, 
and  for  educating  the  ignorant  and  impov- 
erished masses  at  home  or  abroad,  there  should 
be  no  question  as  to  the  right  and  duty  of  con- 
ference and  practical  and  common  sense  co- 
operation. There  is  no  reason  why  theories 
or  facts  concerning  imperilled  orders  should  be 
injected  into  the  consideration  of  this  aspect  of 
the  question. 

If,  however,  objection  be  raised  against  allow- 
ing the  Board  of  Missions  and  Commissions  of 
the  General  Church  to  enter  officially  into  co- 
operative relationship  with  others  upon  unde- 
termined issues,  by  reason  of  the  distinctly  rep- 
resentative character  of  the  Board  and  Com- 
missions, then  it  might  be  well  to  consider  the 
advisability  of  having  the  General  Convention 
appoint  a  Commission  composed  of  those  who 
favour  and  desire  such  liberty,  to  be  official- 


340  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

ly  appointed  to  represent  that  element  in  the 
Church  who  are  convinced  that  such  confer- 
ence and  co-operative  endeavour  would  advance 
the  interests  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  be 
for  the  good  of  this  Church.  Should  such  a 
Commission  be  appointed,  with  power  to  add 
to  its  numbers,  then,  in  cases  where  unforeseen 
conference  or  co-operative  opportunities  arose 
concerning  missions,  social  service,  religious 
education,  temperance,  or  world  peace,  or  in- 
ternational reconstruction,  then  those  of  our 
official  Boards  and  Commissions  who  were  will- 
ing to  serve  on  this  suggested  Commission  of 
Conference  and  Co-operation  could,  from  time 
to  time,  be  added  to  its  membership,  that  the 
Commission  might  have  the  benefit  of  their 
knowledge  and  experience  in  the  special  con- 
ference or  co-operative  undertakings  in  which, 
from  time  to  time,  it  might  be  engaged.  The 
funds  for  such  purpose  could  be  secured  by  the 
special  Commission  from  interested  churchmen. 
If,  with  reference  to  legislation  authorising 
conference  and  co-operative  relationship  with 


A  CO-OPERATIVE  COMMISSION         341 

other  Christian  communions,  this  liberal  spirit 
could  prevail,  the  comprehensiveness  desired 
would  be  secured  without  bitterness  and  without 
controversy,  and  this  Church  would  make  her 
influence  largely  felt  in  the  outworking  of  the 
forces  which  are  seeking  to  establish  the  King- 
dom of  God  more.widely  and  more  firmly  on  the 
earth. 


CHAPTER  XLVI 

THE  TEMPORARY  NATURE  AND  THE 
MISSION  OF  FEDERATED  MOVEMENTS 

IN  the  discussions  current  relative  to  the  value 
of  such  federated  movements  as  are  repre- 
sented by  ''The  Federal  Council  of  Churches," 
and  the  ''Laymen's  Missionary  Movement/' 
the  disposition  is  constantly  shown  to  throw  the 
question  involved  upon  one  or  the  other  of  the 
two  horns  of  a  dilemma,  and  then  to  pass  judg- 
ment upon  the  subject  as  thus  presented  as 
though  there  were  no  other  alternatives  of  value 
possible.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  stated  that 
such  federation  "is  a  most  unhappy  substitute 
for  unity";  *  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  as- 
serted that  "the  position  on  which  the  federa- 

*  *  *  The  Living  Church. ' ' 

342 


FEDERATED  MOVEMENTS  343 

tion  is  based  is  that  the  denominations  are  not 
to  disappear."* 

If  these  were  the  only  alternative  ideas  rep- 
resented by  such  federated  endeavour,  many 
who  favour  it  would  be  unconditionally  op- 
posed to  such  endeavours.  There  are  those, 
however,  who  decline  to  be  forced  upon  either 
one  or  the  other  of  these  horns,  so  sharply  de- 
fined and  clearly  presented,  who  nevertheless 
favour  such  federated  endeavour  for  reasons 
which  seem  to  them  good  and  sufficient.  They 
do  not  for  a  moment  consider  such  federation 
in  any  sense  whatsoever  as  being,  or  as  intend- 
ing to  be,  a  transient  or  permanent  substitute 
for  the  visible  organic  unity  of  the  Church  of 
Christ ;  nor  do  they  believe  that  such  federated 
endeavour  necessarily  expresses  the  idea  that 
denominational  lines  are  destined  to  continue, 
or  that  they  should  continue.  There  are  those 
in  this  Church  who  feel  called  to  face  the  un- 
fortunate conditions  which  exist  with  a  candid 
mind,  illumined  by  the  hope  for  an  ultimate 

*  Prof.  Mathews. 


344  THE  CHURCH  £NCHAIN£D 

visible  unity.  They  recognise  tlie  fact  that  at 
present  lines  of  separation  do  unhappily  divide 
the  Church  of  Christ,  and  ''hinder  us  from 
godly  union  and  concord."  They  realise  that 
organic  visible  unity  cannot  come  into  exist- 
ence by  a  forced  process,  or  by  the  enactment 
of  resolutions  decreeing  that  it  should  exist. 
To  them  it  seems  clearly  evident  that  some 
time  seems  destined  to  elapse  before  the  lines 
of  separation  are  obliterated  and  visible  unity 
is  attained.  It  is  felt  that  the  greater  value  of 
organic  unity  may  be  made  to  appear  more 
clearly  evident  as  a  result  of  co-operative  en- 
deavour during  the  testing,  sifting  and  waiting 
time.  It  is  felt  that  such  federation  may  min- 
ister to  the  creation  of  an  atmosphere  of  sym- 
pathy and  a  broader  basis  of  mutual  under- 
standing. It  is  believed  that  latent  and  unex- 
pressed forces  now  resident  in  the  divided  Body 
of  Christ  may  be  released  for  the  good  of  man- 
kind as  a  result  of  an  earnest  effort  to  combine 
these  spiritual  energies  in  concentrated  effort. 
It  is  hoped  that  such  federated  endeavour  will 


FEDERATED  MOVEMENTS      345 

open  new  approaches  leading  to  ultimate  unity ; 
and  it  is  believed  that,  as  a  result  of  mutual  un- 
derstanding, and  closer  sympathy,  and  a  deeper 
realisation  of  our  need  of  each  other,  the  unhap- 
piness  of  our  divisions  will  become  more  clearly 
apparent. 

The  harm  and  waste  of  denominational  ri- 
valry is  becoming  more  clearly  evident.  The 
value  of  the  denominations  as  witnesses  to 
neglected  aspects  of  truth,  and  as  ministers  to 
neglected  elements  in  the  great  family  of  God, 
may  now  be  said  to  be  a  fast-diminishing  value. 
The  light  reflected  from  many  angles  has  been 
seen  in  its  prismatic  variety  of  colour.  It  was 
needful  that  it  should  be  so  seen  to  be  known 
and  appreciated.  The  need  now  seems  to  be 
that  the  light  should  be  focussed  with  a  common 
aim  and  purpose,  and  from  a  unified,  organic 
centre.  The  problem  of  how  to  synthesise  the 
light  of  truth  now  faces  us.  The  Church  that 
is  blind  to  the  rays  of  light  which  others  see, 
in  which  others  have  walked,  and  to  w^hich  oth- 
ers have  borne  witness,  is  not  destined  to  be  the 


346  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

Churcli  of  the  reconciliation.  It  would  seem 
that  the  policy  of  sound  wisdom  would  be  to 
bring  the  fragmented  crystals  close  enough 
together  to  see  what  beauty  and  power  of  light 
might  be  revealed  as  approaches  are  made  to 
unity.  What  each  denomination  has  held  and 
tested  and  found  to  be  of  permanent  value 
should  be  sought  for,  and  thankfully  admitted, 
and  carefully  conserved.  The  separated  ray  of 
light  may  be  of  a  colour  that  beats  with  hurtful 
intensity  upon  the  sensitive  soul  of  the  artist. 
If,  however,  he  is  wise,  if  he  be  indeed  a  true 
artist,  he  will  not  shun  and  despise  that  sep- 
arated ray.  He  will  think  rather  of  the  richer 
and  more  beautiful  colour  which  will  become 
visible  when  that  ray  has  been  blended  with 
others.  He  will  recognise  it  as  essential  to  an 
ultimate  harmony. 

At  times  we  are  too  much  disposed  to  patent 
the  make  of  the  prism  which  refracts  the  light 
rather  than  to  conserve  and  use  the  rays  of  light 
refracted.  **More  light"  is  the  dark  world's 
need.    Denominations  have  been  light  refrac- 


FEDERATED  MOVEMENTS      347 

tors.  They  may  still  serve  this  purpose.  They 
have  also  been  light  obscurers.  The  question 
which  must  be  candidly  and  honestly  determined 
is:  does  the  amount  and  distinctive  quality  of 
the  light  refracted  and  reflected  by  a  denomina- 
tion compensate  sufficiently  for  the  amount  of 
light  obscured,  or  dissipated,  to  justify  its  con- 
tinued existence?  The  testing  time,  the  value- 
measuring  process,  will  doubtless  have  to  go 
on  for  a  while  longer.  It  is  distinctly  encourag- 
ing that  a  disposition  is  fast  developing  to  con- 
verge the  rays,  and  to  test  their  blending 
powers. 

Such  movements  as  the  '^Federated  Council 
of  Churches"  and  the  ** Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement"  furnish  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  experimenting  to  ascertain  light  values,  and 
the  possibilities  for  light  blending,  and  light  con- 
centration. They  are  not  ultimate  endeavours. 
As  ends  in  themselves  they  would  be  ill-advised. 
As  means  to  an  ultimate  end,  they  can,  if  wisely 
used,  be  made  to  serve  a  valuable  purpose. 
Unity  cannot  be  forced.     It  does  not  come  by 


348  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

a  killing  process.  It  is  not  merely  a  survival 
of  the  fittest.  It  is  a  creative  process.  It  is 
corrective,  and  assimilative,  and  constructive. 
It  teaches  men  and  organisations  when  and  how 
to  die,  that  in  giving  their  life  they  may  find 
it  more  abundantly.  It  sympathetically  studies 
the  unfit,  the  disproportionate,  the  dwarfed  and 
distorted,  and  seeks  to  make  them  fit  to  survive. 
Unity  does  not  come  by  adding  irreconcilables, 
but  by  reconciling  those  who  differ,  by  inspir- 
ing them  with  a  common  spirit,  a  common  hope, 
a  common  purpose,  a  common  love,  and  a  com- 
mon faith  in  things  eternally  essential.  In  the 
light  of  this  inspiration,  differences  which 
seemed  irreconcilable  vanish  from  the  fore- 
ground of  consciousness,  as  the  things  vital  and 
of  eternal  significance  grip  the  heart  and  mind 
and  dominate  the  will  to  sacrifice  and  to  serve. 
We  do  not  know  each  other.  How  can  we  then 
love  each  other?  Federations  and  movements 
are  transient  opportunities  in  the  life  of  the 
Church  in  its  transition  toward  ultimate  unity. 
They  serve  to  give  introductions  to  men  in- 


FEDERATED  MOVEMENTS      349 

spired  by  a  common  divine  purpose.  They  are 
neither  substitutes  for  unity,  nor  seals  of  ap- 
proval upon  disunity.  They  are  valuable  only 
in  so  far  as  they  are  regarded  as  elements  in 
the  creative  processes  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
who  is  seeking  in  the  chaos  which  men's  minds 
have  made  to  build  a  Body  which  shall,  through 
the  power  of  a  great  divine  love  and  a  perfect 
faith,  be  fitly  framed  together  into  ultimate 
unity. 

We  have  a  long  way  to  go.  Across  the  way 
which  lies  ahead  falls  the  shadow  of  the  cross. 
Yonder  is  Golgotha,  the  place  of  the  skull.  Per- 
haps it  was  called  so  to  suggest  the  crucifixion 
of  just  that  part  of  us,  that  the  life  and  love  that 
transcend  the  reason,  and  all  mental  processes, 
might  be  unchained  from  the  limitations  of 
pride  and  prejudice  and  delimited  mental  **  or- 
thodoxy" and  find  their  freedom  and  work  their 
way  to  unity. 

If  Federated  Councils  of  Churches  exist  to 
say  that  we  have  passed  up  to  Calvary,  and  have 
there  been  crucified,  then  they  are  blind  guides 


350  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

to  the  blind.  If  denominationalism  stands  afar 
off,  and  refuses  to  climb  to  its  cross,  or  seeks 
to  avoid  Calvary  by  accepting  a  snug  place  in 
the  Federated  Council,  then  unity  must  await 
the  disillusionment.  If,  however.  Federated 
Councils  and  co-operative  movements  can  serve 
to  open  the  approaches  to  the  cross  of  sacrifice ; 
if  they  can  help  to  create  in  the  Church  a  more 
far-reaching  and  a  clearer  power  of  vision;  if 
they  can  deepen,  strengthen  and  broaden  our 
sympathy  and  our  courage;  if  they  can  lead 
men  of  many  minds  to  kneel  with  the  Master 
of  us  all  beneath  the  olive  trees  of  Gethsemane ; 
if  they  can  help  point  the  way  to  the  offering 
which  He  calls  us  to  make,  which  must  be  made 
precedent  to  an  ultimate  unity;  then  these  fed- 
erated endeavours  will  help  lead  the  way  to  the 
answer  of  the  Master's  prayer  that  we  all  may 
be  one. 

THE   PKOBLEM   PRESSURE 

A  way  to  progress  is  sometimes  opened  by 
the  strong  pressure  of  vital  problems  which 


FEDERATED  MOVEMENTS      351 

surge  against  the  bulwarks  of  ecclesiasticism, 
and  the  man-made  wall  of  separation.  The  vast 
latent  potency  of  eternal  truth  unexpressed; 
the  imperious  pressure  of  the  divine  will  against 
humanly  created  limitations  is  sure  to  produce 
results.  In  that  day  the  destiny  of  the  Church 
will  be  determined  by  its  responsiveness,  and 
by  its  ability  to  float,  as  an  ark,  on  the  flood  tide 
of  the  eternal  purpose.    The  dam  is  doomed. 

In  any  co-operative  endeavour  which  may 
be  undertaken,  mistakes  are  sure  to  be  made. 
It  were  better,  however,  to  learn  from  our  mis- 
takes how  to  reach  the  far  goal  of  truth  and 
unity,  than  to  stand  idle  in  the  presence  of  these 
problems  which  press  upon  us.  A  more  perfect 
love,  which  will  grow  with  a  clearer  under- 
standing of  each  other,  will  cast  out  many  fears, 
and  help  break  the  chains  of  prejudice  and 
apprehension,  which  must  of  necessity  be  broken 
before  organic  unity  is  possible.  As  Bishop 
Coxe  observed,  we  are  not  to-day  privileged  to 
speak  as  Cyprian  did  to  an  undivided  Church. 
Our  work,  of  necessity,  has  to  be  done  under 


352  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

different  conditions.  Holding  tenaciously  to 
our  convictions  with  one  hand,  we  may  stretch 
forth  the  other  to  co-operate  with  those  who 
hold  with  us  at  least  a  common  saving  faith  and 
a  desire  to  express  that  faith  in  Christian 
service. 

These  federated  movements  may  serve  as 
transient  means  to  help  us,  as  Browning  says,  to 

"Conceive  of  truth 
And  yearn  to  gain  it,  catching  at  mistake 
As  midway  help  till  we  reach  fact  indeed." 


CHAPTER  XLVII 

FEDERATION  AND  RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION 

AMONG  the  important  problems  pressing 
for  solution  is  the  great  and  vital  problem 
of  what  is  commonly  called  ''Religious  Educa- 
tion," namely,  the  problem  of  educating  the 
religious  nature.  The  question  of  devising 
means  by  which  the  souls  of  children  may  be 
educated  in  conjunction  with  the  development 
of  their  bodies,  and  the  education  of  their  minds, 
needs  to  be  settled,  and  settled  wisely,  and  with- 
out delay.  It  calls  for  the  concerted  action  of 
all  those  who  believe  that  children  have  souls, 
and  that  there  are  forces  of  illumination  and 
power,  divinely  constituted,  by  which  the  soul 
may  be  educated  if  the  point  of  contact  can  be 

353 


354  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

established.  Co-operation  is  essential  in  order 
to  establish  and  maintain  this  point  of  contact. 

In  the  realms  of  higher  education  the  prob- 
lem is  no  less  serious.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
some  of  the  processes  out  of  which  this  prob- 
lem has  arisen.  It  may  help  to  point  the  way 
to  a  solution. 

Most  of  our  American  universities,  which 
have  been  in  existence  for  a  hundred  years,  were 
founded  in  the  faith  and  enthusiasm  of  eccle- 
siastical and  denominational  conviction.  This 
was  true  of  Harvard,  William  and  Mary, 
Princeton,  Columbia  and  Yale  and  many  other 
great  institutions  of  learning.  Conscious  of  a 
responsibility  to  be  the  bulwarks  and  defenders 
of  the  beliefs  of  their  respective  founders  and 
benefactors,  these  institutions,  and  the  men 
trained  in  them,  consecrated  themselves  to  de- 
fend and  propagate  the  distinctive  dogmas  and 
ecclesiastical  tenets  of  their  founders  and  fol- 
lowers. Their  early  presidents  were  learned 
doctors  of  the  most  orthodox  divinity. 

This  resulted  in  the  over  emphasis  of  sep- 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  355 

arated  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical  contentions. 
Shadows,  dark  and  grotesque,  were  thrown 
across  the  path  of  faith.  Souls,  made  for  the 
light,  began  at  last  to  shudder  and  to  grow  chill. 
Shibboleths  were  made  the  tests  of  loyalty. 
Traditionalism  fettered  the  soul.  Theories  were 
propounded,  and  declared  essential  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Church,  and  as  generally  neces- 
sary to  salvation.  Then  science  and  philosophy 
began  to  speak  in  terms  of  freedom.  Their  dog- 
matism was  no  less  dogmatic,  but  it  was  less 
ancient.  There  were  fewer  facts  to  the  con- 
trary. Students  had  their  minds  turned  from 
the  chains  being  forged  in  laboratory  and  lec- 
ture room,  by  the  flash  of  the  sparks  made  by 
hammer  blows  which  fell,  fast  and  furious,  upon 
the  age-long  chains  of  ecclesiastical  tradition 
and  theological  dogmatism. 

Wliile  the  ancient  chains  were  being  broken, 
the  new  chains  of  rationalism  and  materialism 
were  being  forged.  The  unconscious  rebound 
was  from  one  cell  in  the  prison  house  into  an- 
other.   From  the  chains  of  dogmatism,  forged 


356  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

by  the  narrow  process  of  deductive  reasoning, 
men  passed  into  captivity  under  the  chains 
forged  through  the  process  of  hasty  general- 
isation in  the  inductive  process  of  reasoning. 
The  collegiate  mind  passed  from  the  bondage 
of  the  grotesque  dogmas  of  traditionalism  into 
the  bondage  of  chains  forged,  and  still  being 
forged,  in  crucibles,  and  retorts,  and  in  the  lab- 
oratories of  materialistic  philosophers,  from 
which  God  had  been  excluded  because  He  could 
not  be  found  with  the  microscope,  or  telescope, 
and  because  the  fact  of  His  presence  could  not 
be  ascertained  by  weighing  the  soul. 

Because  men  have  shown  ability  and  genius 
in  the  realm  of  their  academic  specialty,  they 
have  been  allowed  to  believe,  and  to  make  others 
believe,  that  they  could,  speak  with  the  au- 
thority of  their  accredited  position,  concerning 
God,  the  soul,  and  immortality,  and  all  other 
things  pertaining  to  spiritual  life  and  spiritual 
relationships.  These  sceptics,  rationalists  and 
materialists  who  presume  to  decree  the  dogmas 
of  unbelief,  know,  if  they  would  admit  it,  that 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  357 

the  faculties  out  of  which  they  speak  have  been 
trained  by  dealing  with  material  things,  and 
with  visible  phenomena,  and  are,  therefore,  not 
trained  or  competent  to  judge  concerning  God 
and  the  soul,  and  the  things  which  pertain  to 
the  world  which  lies  beyond  the  natural  order. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Church,  enchained  to 
the  non-essential,  is  not  able  to  speak  with 
authority  concerning  the  things  which  are  es- 
sential. Her  voice  is  too  often  drowned  by  the 
clank  of  her  chains.  With  men  all  about  her 
bound  "in  captivity  to  sin  and  death,"  she  has 
at  times  been  content  to  contend  as  to  whether 
they  were  predestined  to  eternal  torment,  or 
capable  of  freedom  of  will.  Then,  too,  the  means 
of  grace  by  which  their  freedom  might  be  se- 
cured have  been  delimited  to  certain  theories  of 
ministerial  succession,  and  to  the  material  form 
and  substance  and  method  of  sacramental  min- 
istration. It  is  the  chained  God  who  has  been 
expelled  from  so  many  of  our  colleges  and  uni- 
versities. It  is  largely  because  the  Church  has 
bound  and  fettered  the  Christ  that  He  has  been 


358  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

put  on  probation  by  the  collegiate  mind.  The 
unchained  god  of  this  world  has  been  allowed 
the  dominant  place.  He  has  turned  the  cur- 
rents of  education  into  the  channels  of  material- 
ism. He  has  set  up  false  standards  of  success. 
He  has  unreasoningly  exalted  reason.  He  has 
blinded  men's  eyes  to  the  truth  that  makes  men 
free.  He  has  made  the  dogmas  of  doubt  to  be- 
come dominant.  He  has  decreed  that  the  pur- 
pose of  education  is  primarily  to  enable  men  to 
make  a  living,  or  a  fortune,  and  has  hidden  from 
view  the  real  purpose  of  education  which  is  the 
enrichment  of  life,  and  the  development  of  its 
capacity  to  correspond  with  its  whole  environ- 
ment, which  includes  God,  and  the  eternal  years 
of  the  soul's  destiny. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  youth  of  our  land  are 
leaving  their  homes,  and  their  parish  churches, 
to  be  plunged,  all  unprepared,  into  this  vortex 
of  scepticism  and  materialistic  philosophy,  with 
no  clear  voice  to  call  them  to  a  high  point  of 
vision,  with  no  polar  star  amid  the  whirling 
star  dust,  and  with  no  authoritative  pronounce- 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  359 

ment  relative  to  the  essential  truth  and  funda- 
mental verities  of  the  Christian  faith. 

It  would  be  a  tragedy  to  be  compelled  to  wait 
for  some  solution  to  this  serious  problem  until 
Conferences  on  Faith  and  Order  had  finally 
solved  the  great  and  important  question  of 
visible  organic  Church  unity.  Souls  are  daily 
passing  into  this  vortex  of  doubt  and  unbelief. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  Christian  Church,  and 
of  Christian  Colleges,  to  help  them.  They 
have  the  right  to  expect  it.  They  have  a  birth- 
right, as  children  of  the  Christian  Church,  to 
ask  that  the  essential  things  be  made  clear  to 
them,  and  that  a  light  that  surely  and  con- 
stantly shines  be  set  in  our  colleges  and  uni- 
versities to  help  save  them  from  the  shipwreck 
of  their  faith. 

One  mission  of  the  Federated  Council  of 
Churches  might  well  be  to  seek  to  bring  about 
some  federated  action  on  the  part  of  the  various 
Boards  of  Religious  Education  looking  to  some 
practical  solution  of  this  grave  and  pressing 
problem.     No  one  Church  can  solve  the  diffi- 


360  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

culty.  As  Mr.  George  Wharton  Pepper  has  said, 
*'We  Christians  of  the  several  communions 
have  so  long  distrusted  one  another  that  we  in- 
dulge a  presumption  against  any  plan  put  for- 
ward by  a  group  other  than  our  own."*  The 
obvious  way  to  avoid  this  difficulty  is  to  have  a 
plan  formulated  and  put  into  operation  by  the 
various  "groups"  co-operating 

* '  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  splendor  may  escape." 

The  bid  for  patronage  and  for  endowments 
has  been  an  influential  factor  in  eliminating  the 
denominational  emphasis  from  most  educational 
institutions  once  under  Church  control.  If  this 
shall  result  in  the  loss  of  Christian  character, 
the  value  of  the  endowments  is  very  question- 
able ;  and,  unless  something  is  done  to  give  the 
assurance  that  the  Christian  faith  shall  not  be 
compromised  and  repudiated,  there  is  sure  to 
be  a  demand  for  a  return  to  the  denominational 
college  and  university.    It  would  seem,  however, 

*"A  Voice  from  the  Crowd,"  p.  126. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  361 

that  by  concerted  action,  a  way  could  be  found 
by  which  educational  institutions  which  desire 
to  maintain  the  fundamental  convictions  of 
faith,  could  make  those  convictions  authori- 
tatively known.  The  unauthorised  pronounce- 
ments of  individual  professors  would  then  be 
known  to  be  the  unwarranted  sentiments  of 
individuals  officially  repudiated.  They  would 
lack  what  they  now  have,  namely,  the  seeming 
silent  sanction  of  the  university.  These  phos- 
phorescent lights  would  then  be  taken  from  the 
academic  towers,  and  placed  where  their  glow 
and  reach  would  depend  upon  their  intrinsic 
merit.  The  light  that  shines  from  the  tower 
should  be  the  Light  of  Life,  and  the  university 
that  seeks  Christian  patronage,  should  place  it 
there,  and  see  that  it  is  kept  burning  and  that 
the  windows  from  which  it  shines  are  not 
darkened. 

Most  universities  and  colleges  would  doubt- 
less welcome  any  suggestion  which  the  Fed- 
erated Boards  of  Religious  Education  would 
make,  and  would  gladly  co-operate  in  any  pro- 


362  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

gramme  which  had  back  of  it  the  consensus  of 
Christian  thought  and  conviction. 

The  fear  of  compromising  official  order  or 
dignity  by  entering  into  such  a  federated  en- 
deavour is  a  fear  which  would  suggest  that  the 
ecclesiastical  soul  had  so  far  lost  its  sense  of 
proportion  and  its  power  of  vision  as  to  make  it 
completely  blind  to  the  peril  in  which  thousands 
of  the  Church 's  children  are  daily  placed  in  the 
presence  of  the  rationalistic  and  materialistic 
doubt  and  scepticism  which  honeycomb  many 
of  the  universities  and  colleges  which  they  at- 
tend. 

The  very  serious  question  arises  as  to  how 
much  respect  these  students  will  have  for  the 
faith  and  order  of  the  Church  which,  entrenched 
behind  the  bulwarks  of  consistency  and  dignity, 
refused  to  co-operate  in  an  effort  to  create  in 
our  colleges  and  universities  a  Christian  en- 
vironment for  the  education  of  their  souls,  and 
the  development  of  their  faith. 


CHAPTER  XL VIII 

THE  PRICE  OF  CONSISTENCY 

TT  has  been  said  of  consistency  that  it  is  a 
A  jewel.    We  venture  to  assert  that  it  is  often 
a  shackle  forged  into  some  corner  of  a  man's 
mind  that  keeps  his  personality  from  liberty 
and  progress.    He  who  fears  being  inconsistent 
is  afraid  of  truth,  or  is  restrained  as  a  seeker 
after  truth.    What  he  thought  yesterday,  what 
he  thinks  to-day,  holds  him  fast.     The  larger 
truth  beckons.    He  stands  pat.    He  knows  where 
he  is  now,  he  knows  not  where  he  will  land  if  he 
ventures  to  step  forward.     He  fears  to  trust 
his    sympathies,    and    is    sceptical    as    to    the 
promptings  of  his  deeper  emotions.     He  is  a 
trustee.    The  talent  must  be  kept  wrapped  in  a 
napkin,  or  else  put  into  competition  with  other 

363 


'.'M  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

talents.  To  merge  it  in  any  co-operative  enter- 
prise would  be  inconsistent  with  his  conscious- 
ness of  trust.  The  gold  might  rust,  or  become 
tarnished  if  placed  in  a  common  treasury  with 
silver  and  nickel  and  copper  currency.  Some- 
how he  seems  to  doubt  the  power  of  Him,  whose 
sure  image  he  knows  is  stamped  deep  into  His 
golden  coin,  to  keep  track  of  it  if  it  is  merged 
in  some  corporate  enterprise.  The  Master 
whose  coin  it  is  might  get  mixed  in  His  account- 
ing, and  let  this  rarest  coin  of  His  currency  get 
lost,  or  become  debased. 

In  dealing  with  eternal  truth,  we  cannot  al- 
ways be  consistent.  (Jur  theories  are  but  the 
reflections  of  the  light  of  truth  from  the  angles 
of  our  mind.  Of  course,  if  the  angle  is  a  pol- 
ished crystal  set  firm  in  an  immutable  socket,  it 
will  continue  forever  to  reflect  the  one  ray  of 
fight  that  falls  upon  it.  But  it  were  pure  ignor- 
ance to  claim  that  this  ray  was  the  full  revela- 
tion of  the  glory  of  the  sun.  And  shall  he  be  ac- 
counted criminally  inconsistent  who  largely 
trusts  the  spiritual  conviction  which  prompts 


THE  PRICE  OF  CONSISTENCY  365 

him  to  co-oporato  with  thos(»  wlio  are  co-workers 
with  Christ,  because  the  light  has  not  succeeded 
in  reaching  them  along  the  path  which  it  I'ollows 
in  reaching  us?  His  heart,  his  faith,  may  not 
square  with  his  logic.  ]^ut  wlio  cares'?  The 
question  is,  which  is  the  bigger,  the  more  vital, 
the  more  Christlike;  the  love,  and  sympathy, 
and  common  faith  which  build  men  into  fellow- 
ship, or  the  logical  consistency  of  thought 
which  puffs  them  up,  and  which  builds  barriers 
which  keep  tliem  from  dwelling  together  in  the 
unity  of  spirit  and  the  bond  of  peace,  and  in  a 
deep  devotion  to  the  common  purpose  of  sav- 
ing men  with  a  great,  catholic  purpose  from 
the  heresy  of  sin  and  the  schism  of  separation 
from  the  Saviour  of  men? 


CHAPTER  XLIX 
THE  QUESTION  OF  UNITY 

IT  is  insisted  that  there  can  be  no  unity  with- 
out the  apostolic  succession.  Has  it  been 
proven  that,  in  any  age  of  the  Church's  history, 
there  has  been  unity  with  it?  The  essential  value 
of  the  historic  episcopate  as  a  means  to  secure 
and  preserve  the  organic  visible  unity  of  the 
Church  may  and  should  be  urged  and  main- 
tained ;  but  there  are  other  forces  which  need  to 
be  considered  which  must  of  necessity  be  con- 
sidered precedent  to  this,  without  which  no  out- 
ward uniformity  of  order  would  be  permanent 
and  spiritually  potent.  There  was  a  perfectly 
regular  and  valid  ministry  while  the  apostles 
were  on  earth,  and  yet  there  were  divisions 
among  them,  some  going  to  the  Jews,  and  others 

366 


THE  QUESTION  OF  UNITY  367 

to  the  Gentiles,  as  a  result  of  this  very  ques- 
tion of  an  ancient  succession.  In  the  Churches 
to  which  they  ministered  there  was  a  woful  lack 
of  unity.  St.  Paul  writes  to  Corinth,  *'I  hear 
that  there  be  divisions  among  you,  and  verily  I 
believe  it."  Some  were  claiming  to  be  of  Paul 
the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles;  some  of  Cephas 
the  apostle  of  the  circumcision,  and  others  still 
of  Apollos.  St.  Paul  calls  this  fleshly  contention. 
For,  says  he,  ''Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is 
Apollos  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed? 
.  .  .  Therefore  let  no  man  glory  in  men,  for  ye 
are  Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's."  The  schism 
which,  however,  he  most  deplores  is  that  which 
was  occasioned  by  sin  cutting  off  members  of 
the  Body  of  Christ  from  communion  and  fellow- 
ship with  Him. 

This  is  surely  the  kind  of  schism  which  min- 
isters of  the  apostolic  succession  of  spirit  will 
ever  most  deeply  deplore.  Sin  is  the  great 
maker  of  schism  in  the  Body  of  Christ.  It  sun- 
ders souls  from  Him.  We  should  surely  find 
some  other  name  than  ''schismatics"  for  those 


368  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

who  are  spending  their  lives  at  home  amid  pri- 
vations, and  in  far-away  lands  amid  perils, 
seeking  to  build  souls  into  the  Body  of  Christ, 
and  endeavouring,  through  prayer  and  labour, 
to  heal  the  schisms  which  sin  is  making.  If  we 
are  in  earnest  in  our  hatred  of  schism,  we  will 
seek  closer  fellowship  with  those  who  are 
spending  themselves  in  seeking  to  heal  and  pre- 
vent the  mortal  schism  made  by  vice  and  sin 
in  the  Body  of  our  common  Lord  and  Mas- 
ter. 

Somehow  there  is  a  very  deep  feeling,  which 
transcends  the  power  of  words  to  describe,  that 
we  are  after  all,  perhaps,  failing  to  put  the  em- 
phasis just  where  it  is  most  needed  in  consid- 
ering those  things  which  make  for  the  unity  of 
the  Body  of  Christ. 

There  are  many  who  have  been  born  and 
reared  in  this  Church,  who  cherish  her  beauti- 
ful liturgy,  who  revere  her  ancient  heritage, 
who  hold  her  unbroken  continuity  through  or- 
ders and  sacraments  as  a  rare  and  priceless 
possession    and    trust,    and    who    are    deeply 


THE  QUESTION  OF  UNITY  369 

conscious  of  the  depth  and  richness  of  her  bal- 
anced teaching;  who  feel  that  her  place  would 
be  more  glorious  if  she  were  made  free  to  gladly 
acknowledge  the  irregular  ministry  and  sacra- 
ments of  those  who,  for  reasons  over  which, 
in  many  instances,  they  had  no  control,  were 
separated  from  the  regularity  of  ordered  suc- 
cession as  this  Church  has  retained  it,  and  yet, 
who,  with  what  we  regard  as  a  handicap,  have 
fought  a  good  fight,  kept  the  faith  which  unites 
the  souls  of  men  with  the  saving  Christ,  and 
have,  through  what  Bishop  Doane  calls  a  valid, 
though  irregular  ministry,  built  millions  of 
immortal  souls  into  deathless  union  with  the 
Lord  of  life. 

What  credentials,  what  larger,  richer  and 
more  golden  harvest  have  we  to  show  in  proof 
of  the  fact  that  what  we  regard  as  a  priceless 
heritage,  is  of  such  closeness  with  the  apostles 
that  such  a  measure  of  special  grace  and  power 
flows  into  us  and  through  us  by  way  of  this 
special  and  exclusive  channel,  as  to  justify  us 
in  withholding  fellowship,  conference  and  co- 


370  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

operation  from  those  who,  without  this  special 
means  of  grace,  are  empowered  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  for  the  work  of  their  ministry  in  building 
the  Father's  children  into  the  Body  of  His  Son? 


CHAPTER  L 
THE  VISION  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN 

THE  Master  stands  in  the  silence  there  upon 
a  mount  called  Olivet.  Below  is  the  City 
of  Zion,  proud  of  its  ancient  heritage,  and  un- 
questionably conscious  of  its  orthodoxy.  From 
its  centre  rises  the  ancient  temple  of  Jehovah. 
At  its  altar  minister  the  priests  of  the  ancient, 
divinely  appointed  order  and  of  unbroken  suc- 
cession in  the  tribe  of  Levi.  From  its  altar 
rises  the  smoke  of  the  divinely  appointed  sacri- 
fice. ''Beholding  the  city.  He  wept  over  it,  say- 
ing, 0  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem." 

''And  there  they  crucify  Him."  The  years 
pass.  An  army  encircles  the  city's  walls.  Not 
one  stone  is  left  upon  another.  "How  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thee  together  j  and  ye 

371 


372  THE  CHURCH  ENCHAINED 

would  not.  Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you 
desolate." 

Invisible  He  stands  to-day  among  us.  Our 
eyes  are  holden  and  we  know  Him  not.  He  calls. 
Our  ears  are  deaf  and  we  hear  Him  not.  He 
weeps  over  the  tragedy  of  the  world,  and  over 
the  tragedy  of  His  Church.  What  is  He  say- 
ing? 

May  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son  and  God 
the  Holy  Ghost  give  grace  to  His  Church  that 
she  may  hear  and  obey  what  the  Master  says 
as  He  looks  down  upon  us  and  weeps.  May  He 
grant  that  we  may  not  be  destined  through  dis- 
obedience to  His  voice  to  hear  about  us  tlie  fall- 
ing of  the  stones  of  a  temple  left  desolate. 


